Renewed Interest in the Rapid Identification of Clostridium difficile from Culture

Clostridium difficile has a well documented role in pseudomembraneous colitis and diarrhoea associated with antibiotics. Evidence has also implicated C. difficile in colitis not induced by antibiotics, exacerbation's of chronic inflammatory bowel disease and postoperative diarrhoea.

Many laboratories rely on the detection of C. difficile enterotoxin (Toxin A) and/ or cytotoxin (Toxin B) to diagnose infection. However, recent investigations have shown that the detection of these toxins is not always consistent with active infection. The emergence of variant strains deficient in Toxin A and/or Toxin B whilst still retaining pathogenicity (Binary Toxin) has reinforced the need to retain C.difficile culture as a primary test. This, plus the fact that some laboratories do not have the facilities required to detect these toxins has reinforced the need to maintain culture as a standard laboratory testing procedure.

The use of Microscreen® C. difficile allows identification of C. difficile from primary selective culture, within two minutes. The test latex particles in Microscreen® C. difficile are coated with antibodies specific for C. difficile somatic antigens, resulting in a highly specific test with a high predictive negative value.

The kit, which is simple to use and gives clear cut results, contains a positive control, has a long shelf-life, and offers the confidence of high sensitivity and specificity.

Microgen Bioproducts offers a wide range of products for the detection and identification of micro-organisms isolated from food and clinical/veterinary samples.