Question

There has been a sudden increase in watery diarrhea on a medical unit and Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is now suspected. As an Infection Preventionist (IP), you have been asked to advise the medical team about laboratory tests for C. difficile. Which of the following statements regarding laboratory testing for C. difficile is/are accurate?

I. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests approved by the Food and Drug Administration have high sensitivity and specificity for testing the presence of toxin-producing C. difficileorganisms.

II. Toxigenic culture results have been demonstrated to act as a gold-standard against other test modalities tested in clinical performance trials.

III. Enzyme immunoassay (EIA) testing for C. difficile toxins A and B is rapid and more sensitive than both toxigenic culture and PCR, thus making it ideal for clinical diagnosis of C. difficileinfection.

IV. Antigen detection tests for C. difficile have a high specificity, allowing them to be used as stand-alone tests for detecting toxins.

https://www.cdc.gov/hai/organisms/cdiff/cdiff_faqs_hcp.html

Answer 1

Always toxigenic culture test of the stool stands as the gold standard to detect the clostridium difficile.The result is expected in 48-72 hours of test.