Doctors often suspect C. difficile in anyone who has diarrhea and who has other risk factors for C. difficile.
Clostridium difficile (klos-TRID-e-um dif-uh-SEEL), also known as Clostridioides difficile and often referred to as C. difficile or C. diff, is a bacterium that can cause symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life-threatening inflammation of the colon.
Illness from C. difficile most commonly affects older adults in hospitals or in long-term care facilities and typically occurs after use of antibiotic medications. However, studies show increasing rates of C. difficile infection among people traditionally not considered to be at high risk, such as young and healthy individuals who haven't used antibiotics and who haven't been in a health care facility.
Each year in the United States, about a half million people get sick from C. difficile, and in recent years, C. difficile infections have become more frequent, severe and difficult to treat. Recurrent C. difficile infections also are on the rise.
C difficile can produce two toxins, designated A and B, that have pathogenic effects in humans. Antibiotic-associated pseudomembranous colitis has been shown to result from the action of these two toxins. This disease has been associated with clindamycin use but it is now recognized that pseudomembranous colitis can follow administration of virtually any antibiotic. More than 70 percent of the cases in a large series were associated with cephalosporin therapy. The clinical spectrum of antibiotic-induced syndromes caused by C difficile includes patients with symptoms of acute abdomen with little or no diarrhea, as well as cases with fulminant life-threatening diarrhea. Nosocomial transmission and reinfection with different strains occurs as do spontaneous cases without prior antimicrobial therapy. In cases where cessation of antibiotic therapy does not produce a response, specific therapy with oral vancomycin, metronidazole, or oral bacitracin may be effective. Detection of the toxins produced by C difficile (rather than culture of the organism) is important in the determining therapy of this potentially fatal disease.
EIA:
EIA stands for Enzyme immunoassay. The enzyme immunoassay (EIA) test is faster than other tests but isn't sensitive enough to detect many infections and has a higher rate of falsely normal results. For more than 20 years the detection of toxin A/B from fecal samples by immunoenzymatic methods has been the cornerstone of laboratory CDI diagnosis. Toxin enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) are more rapid and easier to perform than culture or cytotoxin assays, they do not require special equipments or a dedicated technician, and the turnaround time allows the laboratory to refer results within the same day of specimen arrival. However, the performance of immunoenzymatic kits for C. difficile toxin(s) detection available on the market versus gold-standard methods is currently considered suboptimal (both in terms of sensitivity and specificity) if used as standalone assays.
References:
https://jcm.asm.org/content/51/3/869
Interpret Your Lab Results
Upload your lab report and we’ll interpret and provide you with recomendations today.
Get StartedGet Started With Our Personal Plan
Advanced Plan
Unlimited Plan
Are You a Health Professional?
Get started with our professional plan
Welcome to Healthmatters Pro.
Save time on interpreting lab results with the largest database of biomarkers online. In-depth research on any test at your fingertips, all stored and tracked in one place. Learn more
Pro Plan
for health professionals
$45 per month
At HealthMatters, we're committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of your personal information. We've put industry-leading security standards in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of the information under our control. We use procedural, physical, and electronic security methods designed to prevent unauthorized people from getting access to this information. Our internal code of conduct adds additional privacy protection. All data is backed up multiple times a day and encrypted using SSL certificates. See our Privacy Policy for more details.
Acetone, Blood, Ammonia, Plasma, Anti GAD 65 Antibodies, Anti-DNase B Strep Antibodies, Antiadrenal Antibodies, Quant, Antinuclear Antibodies, IFA, Antistreptolysin O Ab, B-Type Natriuretic Peptide, Babesia duncani WA1 IgG IFA, C difficile Toxins A+B, EIA, Carbon Monoxide, Blood, Cold Agglutinin Titer, Quant, Copper, RBC, Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), Ethanol, Blood, F078-IgG Casein, F079-IgG Gluten, F2-Isoprostane/Creatinine, Fats, Neutral, Fats, Total, Folate, Hemolysate, Folate, RBC, G-6-PD, Quant, G6PD, Galectin-3, Histamine Determination, Blood, Interleukin-8, Serum, Isopropanol, Blood, K080-IgE Formaldehyde, Lactic Acid, Plasma, M-Spike, M207-IgG Aspergillus niger, Manganese, Plasma, Manganese, RBC, Melanocyte-stimulating Hormone (MSH), Methanol, Blood, Myeloperoxidase (MPO), Neopterin, Serum, NT-proBNP, Rubella Antibodies, IgG, Sirolimus (Rapamune), Blood, Strongyloides IgG Antibody, Testost., F+W Bound, Thyroxine Binding Globulin, Toxoplasma gondii Ab, IgG, Valproic Acid (Depakote), Serum, Varicella Zoster IgG, Vasoactive Intestinal Polypeptide (VIP), Plasma, Vitamin K1, ZnT8 Antibodies