Journal of Gastrointestinal Infections

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VOLUME 2 , ISSUE 1 ( 2012 ) > List of Articles

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Clostridium difficile toxin assay by purified specific antitoxins coated to latex beads

Meenakshi Singh, Kartar Singh, Chetana Vaishnavi, Akshita Kapila

Keywords : Clinical presentation, Clostridium difficile, patient demographics, toxin assay.

Citation Information : Singh M, Singh K, Vaishnavi C, Kapila A. Clostridium difficile toxin assay by purified specific antitoxins coated to latex beads. J Gastrointest Infect 2012; 2 (1):24-29.

DOI: 10.5005/jogi-2-1-24

License: CC BY-SA 4.0

Published Online: 01-08-2015

Copyright Statement:  Copyright © 2012; The Author(s).


Abstract

Backround & Objective: Clostridium difficile associated disease (CDAD) is a matter of grave concern in the hospital environments due to antimicrobial usage. Methods: We investigated the clinical and demographic profile of patients whose fecal sampleswere received in our laboratory and correlated the same with their C. difficile toxin (CDT) status. Six hundred twenty nine consecutive and non-repeat fecal samples were subjected to CDT assay using purified anti-toxin A and anti-toxin B coated to latex beads. Semi-quantitative titrations were carried out with the positive samples with a doubling dilution method. Clinical and demographic profile of each patient was recorded. During analysis the patients were assigned to two groups (i) Group 1 comprised of those receiving antibiotics and/or other drugs and (ii) Group 2 of those not receiving any drug. Results: The age of the patients ranged froma few days to 93 years. Predominant clinical symptoms were diarrhoea (98.7%), abdominal pain (35.9%) and fever (49.8%). CDT was positive in 45.8%with titers ranging from 1 in 5 to 1 in 2560. CDT positivity was highly influenced by prior antibiotic and drug intake (p<0.05). Fever was present in 43.4%and abdominal pain in 35.5%of CDT positive cases. CDT positivitywas also significantly associated with age below 2 years (p<0.001) and between 41-55 years (p<0.01). CDT positivitywas highly associated with gastrointestinal diseases (32.5%) and age. Interpretation & conclusion: Readily available clinical and basic laboratory data are useful for correlation with severity of CDAD.


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