Evaluation of Clostridium difficile fecal load and limit of detection during a prospective comparison of two molecular tests, the illumigene C. difficile and Xpert C. difficile/Epi tests.
In a large prospective comparison, the illumigene test detected Clostridium difficile in 98% of toxin-positive and 58% of toxin-negative samples confirmed positive by other methods. The Xpert was uniformly sensitive. Most samples with discrepant results had C. difficile concentrations below the illumigene limit of detection. The significance of low-level C. difficile detection needs investigation.
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, Davis, California, USA.
Clare E
CE
Gyorke
Susan
S
Wang
Jhansi L
JL
Leslie
Stuart H
SH
Cohen
Jay V
JV
Solnick
Christopher R
CR
Polage
D000328:Adult; D058491:Bacterial Load / Q000379:methods*; D016360:Clostridioides difficile / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D057230:Limit of Detection; D025202:Molecular Diagnostic Techniques / Q000379:methods*