Introduction: Toxigenic Clostridium difficile is the major cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea, colitis, and pseudomembranous colitis. The pathogenicity of C. difficile is related to toxins A&B. Children with cancer are at risk of developing C. difficile infection (CDI) due to increased exposure to antibiotics, immunosuppression, and longer hospital stays. Recently, due to higher sensitivity...

We determined the PCR ribotypes and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of 508 toxigenic Clostridium difficile isolates collected between 2011 and 2013 from 32 U.S. hospitals. Of the 29 PCR ribotypes identified, the 027 strain type was the most common (28.1%), although the rates varied by geographic region. Ribotype 014/020 isolates appear to be emerging. Clindamycin and moxifloxacin resistan...

BACKGROUND The impact of Clostridium difficile colonization in C. difficile infection (CDI) is inadequately explored. As a result, asymptomatic carriage is not considered in the development of infection control policies and the burden of carrier state in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) is unknown. PURPOSE To explore the epidemiology of C. difficile colonization in LTCFs, identify predisposi...

There has been renewed interest in the laboratory diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infections due in large measure to the increase in both numbers and severity of cases of this disease. For the past two decades, enzyme-immunoassays (EIAs) for the detection of first C. difficile toxin A and then toxins A and B have been the most widely used diagnostic test for diagnosis of C. difficile infecti...

BACKGROUND We evaluated the performance of four commercial nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs: Xpert C. difficile, BD MAX Cdiff, IMDx C. difficile for Abbott m2000, and Illumigene C. difficile) for direct and rapid detection of Clostridium difficile toxin genes. METHODS We compared four NAATs on the same set of 339 stool specimens (303 prospective and 36 retrospective specimens) with tox...

The incidence and severity of disease associated with toxigenic Clostridium difficile have increased in hospitals in North America with the emergence of newer, more virulent strains. Toxigenic C. difficile has been isolated from food animals and retail meat with potential implications of transfer to humans. The objective of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of C. difficile in ...

A cytotoxigenic Clostridium difficile strain that fails to produce toxin A but causes hemorrhage and bloody fluid accumulation in ligated ileal loops of rabbits and hemorrhage and diarrhea in hamsters is described. The lack of reaction of DNA from this strain in hybridization studies with a toxin A gene-specific 4.5-kb probe and polymerase chain reaction studies with six toxin A-specific primer...

Rectal swabs from 122 patients and 497 environmental swabs from several wards were examined for the presence of Clostridium difficile in order to assess the role of the environment in the spread of this organism. Clostridium difficile was isolated from 6/27 (22.2%) oncology patients and from 8/163 (4.9%) environmental specimens obtained from the oncology unit. Items found positive for C diffici...

AND EXPLANATION OF THE TEST Toxigenic Clostridium difficile is the leading cause of nosocomial infectious diarrhea in developed countries. An estimated 300,000 cases of C. difficile associated disease (CDAD) are seen per year in U.S. hospitals alone. 2 Clostridium difficile is the etiologic agent in approximately 25% of all cases of antibiotic-associated diarrhea. Virtually any antibiotic can p...

Background The diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) increases concern that asymptomatic carriers of toxigenic C. difficile may be diagnosed with CDI. Methods A matched case control study was conducted in inpatients in a tertiary care center. The first 50 patients with diarrhea and a positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test beginning February 1, 2015, were identified as case...