Evaluation of a commercial cytotoxicity assay for detection of Clostridium difficile toxin

A comparative study was performed to determine the accuracy of Clostridium difficile toxin detection. A commercial cytotoxicity assay (Bartels Immunodiagnostic Supply, Bellevue, Wash.) was compared with conventional microcytotoxicity assays, using Vero and MRC-5 cells. The Bartels system was found to be essentially equivalent to conventional cytotoxicity assays currently being performed for routine C. difficile toxin detection.