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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
This study was planned to evaluate the performance of GeneXpert assay for the detection of Clostridium difficile toxin gene in stool specimens of patients suspected of having Clostridium difficile Infection (CDI), to compare its results with VIDAS based Enzyme Immunoassay (EIA) for the detection of Clostridium difficile toxin, to clinically correlate the positive results and to discuss the clinical utility of each of these two assays. Out of a total of 60 stool specimens processed by both GeneXpert and EIA, C. difficile toxin was detected in 03 (5%) patients by EIA and 05 (8.3%) patients by GeneXpert assay. All the five patients detected positive with either of these two assays showed good clinical correlation with respect to the previous antibiotic therapy and/or histopathological findings. So, both these assays in combination can be used as rapid diagnostic tools for making the definitive diagnosis of CDI. A positive GeneXpert assay is useful in acute conditions with strong suspicion of CDI and a negative VIDAS result should be followed by a more sensitive assay like GeneXpert in view of strong clinical suspicion.