| Description |
Clostridium difficile (Reference #4)
presence of Clostridium difficile. Laboratory services are quite varied as
to how they identify the presence of Clostridium difficile. Some labs are set
up to identify C. difficile as the final microbiological (bacterial) etiology
of a culture, even if a culture method was not used. Other labs use a final
etiology of "see comment" and then enter the results in a free text format.
Still others enter the text under a hematology or chemistry format where a
reference range and "positive" and "negative" result values can be entered.
Wherever the facility lab places the results which are used to demonstrate
the presence of toxin-producing C. difficile, we need to be able to track
them (that means it must occur as a retrievable "positive" or "negative"
result, or as a "bacterial etiology"). Any results contained in a "Comments"
or "Free-text" sections are not acceptable.
Disease associated with the presence of Clostridium difficile
enterotoxin A can cause significant morbidity, as well as mortality. It is of
importance as its predominant acquisition seems to occur nosocomially.
Presence of Clostridial toxin (either enterotoxin A or cytotoxin L) by assay
(whether it be EIA, latex agglutination, cytotoxicity of cell culture
+ neutralization, or culture of organism with subsequent colony testing)
is the best indicator that an inflammatory diarrheal disease is due to
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