[Practical experience with the detection Clostridium difficile]

Clostridium difficile is an important pathogen causing nosocomial diarrhoea and colitis which, in severe cases, may result in pseudomembranous colitis and eventually death. The main pathogenicity factors for C. difficile are toxins referred to as A and B. The diagnosis of diseases caused by C. difficile is based on detection of the toxins, together with culture and determination of susceptibility of C. difficile strains to antibiotics. The article reports results of tests of kits for detecting C. difficile toxins VIDAS(c) C. difficile Toxin A & B (bioMérieux) and Toxin A Test (Oxoid) in 170 stool samples. Also reported are results of the determination of MICs of vancomycin and metronidazole in 302 strains of C. difficile cultured in the bacteriology laboratory of the Institute of Public Health in Ostrava in 2008-2009.