EVALUATION OF A NEW COMMERCIAL CLOSTRIDIUM-DIFFICILE TOXIN-A ENZYME-IMMUNOASSAY USING DIARRHEAL STOOLS

A new, commercially available enzyme immuno-assay for the detection of toxin A in stool specimens, the Premier Clostridium difficile Toxin A test (Meridian Diagnostics), was evaluated using 228 diarrhoeal stool specimens. Using a cytotoxin assay on HeLa cells as the reference method, this new test resulted in a sensitivity of 88 % and a specificity of 95 %. Using the presence or absence of a toxigenic strain in the stools as the reference method, the sensitivity was similar to that of the cytotoxin assay (71.7 % versus 70.5 %) and the overall correlation was even better (89.4 % versus 82 %). The Premier Clostridium difficile Toxin A assay is rapid and easy to perform and is an excellent alternative to the usual toxin B assay.