Comprasion Of Methods Of Testing Clostridium Difficile In Laboratory

Clostridium difficile is the most common cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea. The spectrum of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) can vary between a mild, self-limiting diarrhoea to life-threatening pseudomembranous colitis and toxic megacolon. Morbidity、recurrence rate、severity and mortality resulting from CDI in recent years have increased significantly in the world especially in Europe and North America. Clostridium difficile is also responsible for increasing numbers of community-acquired infections. But clinical diagnosis of CDI is hard because of that Clostridium difficile is difficult to cultivate and the facilities、technique which was used in detection is high. So we looked up many literatures, and compared each detections. We found that:Enzyme immunoassays (EIA) for toxin detection is rapid but with a little sensitivity; Problems with cytotoxicity assay(CTA) include the requirement for special laboratory conditions and the fact that testing takes a long time to complete; Anaerobic toxigenic culture is also faced with the same problem, but it is necessary for epidemiological study, though its specificity is a question; Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)is rapid and sensitive, but at great expense, and the specificity is also a problem since that it just detect toxin gene; Glutamine dehydrogenase assay (GDH) is used as screening for the presence of C. difficile because its high sensitivity、high negative predictive value, and it is also rapid and low cost, but it could not distinguish toxigenic from non-toxigenic strains. now a two-step algorithm for testing Clostridium difficile is being admitted gradually.