title: Evaluation of a new commercial Clostridium difficile toxin A enzyme immunoassay using diarrhoeal stools.
abstract: A new, commercially available enzyme immunoassay for the detection of toxin A in stool specimens, the Premier Clostridium difficile Toxin A test (Meridian Diagnostics), was evaluated using 228 diarrhoeal stool specimens. Using a cytotoxin assay on HeLa cells as the reference method, this new test resulted in a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 95%. Using the presence or absence of a toxigenic strain in the stools as the reference method, the sensitivity was similar to that of the cytotoxin assay (71.7+ versus 70.5%) and the overall correlation was even better (89.4% versus 82%). The Premier Clostridium difficile Toxin A assay is rapid and easy to perform and is an excellent alternative to the usual toxin B assay.
authors.affiliation: University of Louvain, Microbiology Unit, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Delmée
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mackey
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hamitou
mesh_terms: D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000032:analysis*; D016360:Clostridioides difficile; D003015:Clostridium Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000382:microbiology*; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000032:analysis*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D004768:Enterotoxins; C041348:tcdA protein, Clostridium difficile