Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Disorders of Leukocytes01:27

Disorders of Leukocytes

1.5K
Leukocyte disorders can lead to either leukopenia, characterized by an abnormally low leukocyte count, or leukocytosis, marked by a very high leukocyte number.
Leukopenia may result from bone marrow disorders, autoimmune diseases, and infectious diseases. For example, conditions such as multiple myeloma and aplastic anemia can impair the bone marrow's ability to produce adequate leukocytes. Similarly, autoimmune diseases like lupus and viral infections such as HIV can prompt the immune...
1.5K

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Fluoroquinolone-resistant <i>Escherichia coli</i> carrying <i>quinolone efflux pump</i> (<i>qepA</i>) with L348-G349 duplication in the absence of V134I substitution.

Microbiology spectrum·2026
Same author

<i>Letter:</i> Limited Use of Proviral Sequencing in Adults with HIV Starting Long-Acting Injectable Cabotegravir-Rilpivirine.

AIDS patient care and STDs·2026
Same author

Development and Implementation of an AI System for Generating Clinical Urine Drug Test Sign-Outs.

JAMA network open·2026
Same author

<i>In vitro</i> susceptibility of <i>Stenotrophomonas maltophilia</i> and other carbapenem non-susceptible Gram-negative rods in the Pacific Northwest to cefiderocol and aztreonam-avibactam.

JAC-antimicrobial resistance·2026
Same author

Multi-Scale Cross-Attention Multiple Instance Learning Network for Automated Classification of Colorectal Polyps.

Cancer informatics·2026
Same author

Metagenomic polymorphic toxin effector and immunity profiling predicts microbiome development and disease-related dysbiosis.

mSystems·2026
Same journal

The balance between a new Antibiotic and Non-antibiotic Alternatives for the treatment and prevention of uncomplicated Urinary Tract Infections.

Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America·2026
Same journal

Understanding the Clone-Censor-Weight Method in Observational Studies of Antibiotic Duration.

Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America·2026
Same journal

Treatment of Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy with Third-Party Allogeneic BK Virus T Cells.

Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America·2026
Same journal

Protection Against Recurrent Typhoid Fever Conferred by a Prior Episode: Evidence from a Large Cohort Study in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America·2026
Same journal

Pre-treatment Gut Microbiome Diversity and Function Linked to Cytotoxic and Natural Killer Cell Immune Responses after N-803 Treatment in People with HIV.

Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America·2026
Same journal

Reconsidering ambiguous language in infectious disease consult recommendations.

Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 18, 2025

A Protein Microarray Assay for Serological Determination of Antigen-specific Antibody Responses Following Clostridium difficile Infection
09:12

A Protein Microarray Assay for Serological Determination of Antigen-specific Antibody Responses Following Clostridium difficile Infection

Published on: June 15, 2018

10.3K

Elevated White Blood Cell Count Does Not Predict Clostridium difficile Nucleic Acid Testing Results.

Dustin E Bosch1, Patrick C Mathias1, Niklas Krumm1

  • 1Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington, USA.

Clinical Infectious Diseases : an Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America
|February 10, 2021
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

An elevated white blood cell count (WBC) does not reliably predict Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) testing results in hospitalized patients. However, high WBC is a prognostic marker for CDI severity, indicating longer hospital stays and increased mortality risk.

Keywords:
Clostridium difficileleukocytosiswhite blood cell count

More Related Videos

Cefoperazone-treated Mouse Model of Clinically-relevant Clostridium difficile Strain R20291
06:51

Cefoperazone-treated Mouse Model of Clinically-relevant Clostridium difficile Strain R20291

Published on: December 10, 2016

12.9K
A Protocol to Characterize the Morphological Changes of Clostridium difficile in Response to Antibiotic Treatment
12:58

A Protocol to Characterize the Morphological Changes of Clostridium difficile in Response to Antibiotic Treatment

Published on: May 25, 2017

9.2K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Nov 18, 2025

A Protein Microarray Assay for Serological Determination of Antigen-specific Antibody Responses Following Clostridium difficile Infection
09:12

A Protein Microarray Assay for Serological Determination of Antigen-specific Antibody Responses Following Clostridium difficile Infection

Published on: June 15, 2018

10.3K
Cefoperazone-treated Mouse Model of Clinically-relevant Clostridium difficile Strain R20291
06:51

Cefoperazone-treated Mouse Model of Clinically-relevant Clostridium difficile Strain R20291

Published on: December 10, 2016

12.9K
A Protocol to Characterize the Morphological Changes of Clostridium difficile in Response to Antibiotic Treatment
12:58

A Protocol to Characterize the Morphological Changes of Clostridium difficile in Response to Antibiotic Treatment

Published on: May 25, 2017

9.2K

Area of Science:

  • Infectious Diseases
  • Clinical Pathology
  • Epidemiology

Background:

  • Elevated white blood cell count (WBC) is a known prognostic marker for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI).
  • Previous studies suggest high WBC may indicate CDI, but evidence correlating WBC with C. difficile nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the correlation between elevated WBC and C. difficile NAAT results in different patient settings.
  • To assess the utility of WBC as a predictor for CDI diagnosis and its prognostic value.

Main Methods:

  • Retrospective review of laboratory data from 16,568 patients across 4 hospitals over 4 years.
  • Analysis included concurrent WBC and C. difficile NAAT results, patient outcomes, and treatment data.

Main Results:

  • No significant association was found between WBC elevation and C. difficile NAAT results in inpatients.
  • Elevated WBC predicted NAAT positivity in outpatients and ED patients, but with poor accuracy (AUC 0.59 and 0.56).
  • In CDI patients, elevated WBC correlated with longer hospital stays and increased in-hospital mortality (RR 2.9).

Conclusions:

  • Isolated WBC elevation has low sensitivity and specificity for predicting C. difficile NAAT positivity in inpatients.
  • High or rising WBC alone is insufficient to warrant CDI testing in hospitalized patients.
  • WBC remains a valuable prognostic indicator for CDI severity.