Clostridium difficile
BacteriologyLaboratory-Based Surveillance of Clostridium difficile Infection in Australian Health Care and Community Settings, 2013 to 2018In the early 2000s, a binary toxin (CDT)-producing strain of Clostridium difficile, ribotype 027 (RT027), caused extensive outbreaks of diarrheal disease in North America and Europe. This strain has not become established in Australia, and there is a markedly different repertoire of circulating strains there compared to other regions of the world. The...
MinireviewUltrasensitive Clostridioides difficile Toxin Testing for Higher Diagnostic AccuracyCurrently available diagnostic tests for Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) lack specificity or sensitivity, which has led to guideline recommendations for multistep testing algorithms. Ultrasensitive assays for detection of C. difficile toxins provide measurements of disease-specific markers...
ImmunoassaysProspective Evaluation of the mariPOC Test for Detection of Clostridioides difficile Glutamate Dehydrogenase and Toxins A/BThe objective of this study was to evaluate a novel automated random-access test, mariPOC CDI (ArcDia Ltd., Finland), for the detection of Clostridioides difficile glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) and toxins A and B directly from fecal specimens. The mariPOC test was compared with both the GenomEra C....
BacteriologyA Multicenter Study of the Revogene C. difficile System for Detection of the Toxin B Gene from Unformed Stool SpecimensClostridioides difficile is the leading cause of diarrhea in hospitalized U.S. patients and results in over 400,000 cases of C. difficile infection per year. C. difficile infections have mortality rates of 6 to 30% and...
BacteriologyHash-Based Core Genome Multilocus Sequence Typing for Clostridium difficile...Pathogen whole-genome sequencing has huge potential as a tool to better understand infection transmission. However, rapidly identifying closely related genomes among a background of thousands of other genomes is challenging. Here, we describe a refinement to core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST) in which alleles at each gene are reproducibly converted to a unique hash, or short string of letters (hash-cgMLST).
BacteriologyPerformance Evaluation of the Luminex Aries C. difficile Assay in Comparison to Two Other Molecular Assays within a Multihospital Health Care CenterClostridioides difficile infection (CDI) remain a serious issue in the United States. Fast and accurate diagnosis of CDI is paramount to achieve immediate infection control initiation, triaging, and isolation, as well as appropriate antibiotic treatment. However, both, over- and underdiagnosis can lead to adverse patient outcomes, such as unnecessary administration of...
ImmunoassaysEvaluation of a Gastrointestinal Pathogen Panel Immunoassay in Stool Testing of Patients with Suspected Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile InfectionClostridioides (Clostridium) difficile infection (CDI) is the most common causative pathogen of health care-associated gastrointestinal infections; however, due to the overlap of clinical symptoms with those of other causes of acute gastroenteritis, the selection of the most appropriate laboratory test is difficult.
EpidemiologyClostridioides difficile Whole-Genome Sequencing Reveals Limited Within-Host Genetic Diversity in a Pediatric CohortWhole-genome sequencing (WGS) is a highly sensitive method for identifying genetic relatedness and transmission of Clostridioides difficile strains. Previous studies suggest that as few as 3 core genome single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) discriminate between genetically distinct isolates. Because a single C...
CommentaryUltrasensitive Detection of Clostridium difficile Toxins Reveals Suboptimal Accuracy of Toxin Gene Cycle Thresholds for Toxin PredictionsThe use of nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) for the diagnosis of Clostridium (Clostridioides) difficile infection (CDI) leads to overdiagnosis. To improve the clinical specificity of NAATs, there has been a recent interest in using toxin gene cycle thresholds (CTs) to predict the presence and absence of toxins.
