Kulaylat AS, et al. - In order to predict inpatient mortality in patients with Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), researchers constructed a model using clinical indices readily available at the time of hospital admission, including peripheral eosinophil counts. They found that only patients with undetectable admission eosinophil counts had significantly increased odds of inpatient mortality but not those with an elevated white blood cell count in a subgroup analysis of patients presenting without initial tachycardia or hypotension. Undetectable eosinophil counts were also correlated with indicators of severe sepsis, like admission to monitored care settings, the need for vasopressors, and emergency total colectomy. Increasing comorbidity burden and lower systolic blood pressures were other significant predictors of mortality at admission. A simple, widely available, inexpensive model predicting CDI severity and mortality to identify at-risk patients at the time of admission was described in the findings.