title: Simultaneous detection of toxin A and toxin B genetic determinants of Clostridium difficile using the multiplex polymerase chain reaction.
abstract: A multiplex polymerase chain reaction was developed to simultaneously detect the presence of toxin A and toxin B genes of Clostridium difficile. A 1050-bp fragment of the toxin B gene and a 1217-bp fragment of the toxin A gene were amplified from 42 toxic strains of C. difficile; however, from 10 nontoxic strains the toxin gene fragments were not amplified; these data demonstrate that this multiplex polymerase chain reaction procedure can be used to differentiate between toxic and nontoxic strains. This sensitive and specific multiplex polymerase chain reaction for C. difficile toxins may prove to be a valuable diagnostic procedure.
authors.affiliation: Dolphus E. Milligan Science Research Institute, Atlanta, GA 30310.
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: McMillin
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Muldrow
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Laggette
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D016360:Clostridioides difficile / Q000235:genetics*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004761:Enterocolitis, Pseudomembranous / Q000175:diagnosis; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000235:genetics*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004768:Enterotoxins; C041348:tcdA protein, Clostridium difficile; C031815:toxB protein, Clostridium difficile