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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 7, 2017; 23(9): 1552-1567
Published online Mar 7, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i9.1552
Current knowledge on the laboratory diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infection
Adrián Martínez-Meléndez, Adrián Camacho-Ortiz, Rayo Morfin-Otero, Héctor Jesús Maldonado-Garza, Licet Villarreal-Treviño, Elvira Garza-González
Adrián Martínez-Meléndez, Licet Villarreal-Treviño, Departamento de Microbiología e Inmunología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León. Pedro de Alba S/N, Ciudad Universitaria, San Nicolás de los Garza, Nuevo León 66450, Mexico
Adrián Camacho-Ortiz, Servicio de Infectología, Hospital Universitario "Dr. José Eleuterio González", Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León. Av. Francisco I. Madero Pte. S/N, Col. Mitras Centro. Monterrey, Nuevo Leon 64460, Mexico
Rayo Morfin-Otero, Hospital Civil de Guadalajara, "Fray Antonio Alcalde" e Instituto de Patología Infecciosa y Experimental, Centro Universitario de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Guadalajara. Sierra Mojada 950, Col. Independencia, Guadalajara, Jalisco 44350, Mexico
Héctor Jesús Maldonado-Garza, Elvira Garza-González, Servicio de Gastroenterología, Hospital Universitario "Dr. José Eleuterio González", Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León. Av. Francisco I. Madero Pte. S/N, Col. Mitras Centro. Monterrey, Nuevo Leon 64460, Mexico
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest. No financial support.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Elvira Garza-González, PhD, Servicio de Gastroenterología, Hospital Universitario "Dr. José Eleuterio González", Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León. Av. Francisco I. Madero Pte. S/N, Col. Mitras Centro. Monterrey, Nuevo Leon 64460, Mexico. elvira_garza_gzz@yahoo.com
Telephone: +52-81-83333664 Fax: +52-81-83294166
Received: November 15, 2016
Peer-review started: November 15, 2016
First decision: January 10, 2017
Revised: January 21, 2017
Accepted: February 16, 2017
Article in press: February 17, 2017
Published online: March 7, 2017
Core Tip

Core tip: This work is a review of the strategies that may be used for laboratory diagnosis of infection with Clostridium difficile. First, we provide general recommendations for testing of samples taking in account the guidelines of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America/Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American College of Gastroenterology. We reviewed diverse methods of diagnosis including, culture, toxigenic culture, cell cytotoxic neutralization assay and the use of enzyme immuno assays. Finally, we present an overview of singleplex and multiplex nucleic acid amplification tests.