Ph. Gilligan et al., THE USE OF A COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE ENZYME-IMMUNOASSAY FOR THE DETECTION OF CLOSTRIDIUM-DIFFICILE TOXIN-A, Archives of pathology and laboratory medicine, 117(5), 1993, pp. 507-510
Citations number
16
Categorie Soggetti
Pathology,"Medical Laboratory Technology","Medicine, Research & Experimental
A commercially available enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for the detection of
Clostridium difficile toxin A (Premier Toxin A EIA, Meridian Diagnost
ics, Cincinnati, Ohio) was compared with tissue culture cytotoxicity a
ssay, enterotoxigenic culture, and latex agglutination test for the la
boratory diagnosis of C difficile-associated disease. When evaluated f
or detection of C difficile-associated disease using clinical specimen
s, EIA was the most sensitive (83.1%) and tissue culture cytotoxicity
assay was the most specific test with EIA, tissue culture cytotoxicity
assay and enterotoxigenic culture having similar correlation values (
96.6, 96.1, 94.0%, respectively). The latex agglutination test was not
as accurate (89.7% correlation) as the other three tests due mainly t
o its poor sensitivity (47.9%). The EIA is a rapid, easy-to-use altern
ative to tissue culture cytotoxicity assay for detection of C difficil
e-associated disease.