Evaluation of enzyme immunoassays to detect Clostridium difficile toxin from anaerobic stool culture

Am J Clin Pathol. 2009 Jan;131(1):81-4. doi: 10.1309/AJCPMM2E7VSPHNPG.

Abstract

Stool culture for Clostridium difficile, while necessary for strain typing and antimicrobial surveillance, cannot determine toxin production. We prospectively tested in triplicate 91 C difficile cultured isolates for toxin production by 2 enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) (Meridian Premier Toxins A&B, Meridian Bioscience, Cincinnati, OH; and TechLab Tox A/B II, TechLab, Blacksburg, VA) and cytotoxin neutralization bioassay (CTN). By CTN, 88% (80/91) were toxigenic. Reproducibility was 93% (85/91) for CTN, 80% (73/91) for Meridian EIA, and 79% (72/91) for TechLab EIA. Compared with CTN, sensitivities were 87.1% and 89.2% for the Meridian and TechLab EIAs, respectively. In an additional 115 stool specimens, CTN detected toxin more frequently from cultured isolates (96/115) than stool (84/115). For C difficile toxin detection from isolates, EIA was less reproducible than CTN. EIA methods can be falsely negative in 10% to 12% of isolates, and these should be tested by CTN or polymerase chain reaction. When positive, EIA is fast and reliable for detecting C difficile toxin from culture.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Evaluation Study

MeSH terms

  • Anaerobiosis
  • Clostridioides difficile / immunology*
  • Cytotoxins / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Enterotoxins / analysis*
  • Feces / chemistry*
  • Feces / microbiology
  • Humans
  • Immunoenzyme Techniques / methods
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Prospective Studies
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity

Substances

  • Cytotoxins
  • Enterotoxins