Effective Detection of Toxigenic Clostridium difficile by a Two-Step Algorithm Including Tests for Antigen and Cytotoxin
Open Access
- 1 March 2006
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Society for Microbiology in Journal of Clinical Microbiology
- Vol. 44 (3) , 1145-1149
- https://doi.org/10.1128/jcm.44.3.1145-1149.2006
Abstract
We evaluated a two-step algorithm for detecting toxigenic Clostridium difficile : an enzyme immunoassay for glutamate dehydrogenase antigen (Ag-EIA) and then, for antigen-positive specimens, a concurrent cell culture cytotoxicity neutralization assay (CCNA). Antigen-negative results were ≥99% predictive of CCNA negativity. Because the Ag-EIA reduced cell culture workload by ≈75 to 80% and two-step testing was complete in ≤3 days, we decided that this algorithm would be effective. Over 6 months, our laboratories' expenses were US$143,000 less than if CCNA alone had been performed on all 5,887 specimens.Keywords
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