Both male and female outpatients were eligible for
enrolment in the study if they were 18 years of age or more,
and presented to their primary care physician with acute
watery diarrhoea of presumed infectious origin. Any patient
suffering from chronic, iatrogenic or dysenteric bloody
diarrhoea was excluded from the study, as were those with
acute ulcerative colitis or pseudomembranous colitis in
association with broad-spectrum antibiotics.