Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T21:32:24.741Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Comparison of alcohol shock enrichment and selective enrichment for the isolation of Clostridium difficile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2009

T. V. Riley ,
J. S. Brazier ,
Hamimah Hassan ,
Kathleen Williams  and
K. D. Phillips
T. V. Riley
Affiliation:
PHLS Anaerobe Reference Unit, Luton and Dunstable Hospital, Luton
J. S. Brazier*
Affiliation:
PHLS Anaerobe Reference Unit, Luton and Dunstable Hospital, Luton
Hamimah Hassan
Affiliation:
PHLS Anaerobe Reference Unit, Luton and Dunstable Hospital, Luton
Kathleen Williams
Affiliation:
PHLS Anaerobe Reference Unit, Luton and Dunstable Hospital, Luton
K. D. Phillips
Affiliation:
PHLS Anaerobe Reference Unit, Luton and Dunstable Hospital, Luton
*
Mr J. S. Brazier, Public Health Laboratory, Luton and Dunstable Hospital, Lewsey Road, Luton LU4 0DZ.
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Two enrichment methods were compared for their ability to recover Clostridium difficile from stool samples. One method used selective enrichment in an antibiotic-containing broth followed by detection with a latex particle agglutination (LPA) reagent. The other used enrichment in a non-selective broth following treatment of the specimen with alcohol. With clinical specimens enrichment culture was significantly more successful at detecting C. difficile than direct plating. Alcohol shock enrichment was twice as effective as direct culture, while selective broth enrichment was three times more effective. The use of LPA for screening selective enrichment broths for C. difficile should prove a cost-effective measure as only positive broths (about 20%) require subculture for confirmation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Epidemiology & Infection , Volume 99 , Issue 2 , October 1987 , pp. 355 - 359
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

References

REFERENCES

Bartlett, J. G. (1979). Antibiotic-associated pseudomembranous colitis. Reviews of Infectious Diseases 1, 530–539.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowman, R. A. (1985). The laboratory diagnosis of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea. M.Sc. Thesis, University of Western Australia.Google Scholar
Bowman, R. A., Arrow, S. A. & Riley, T. V. (1986). Latex particle agglutination for detecting and identifying Clostridium difficile. Journal of Clinical Pathology 39, 212–214.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowman, R. A. & Riley, T. V. (1986). Isolation of Clostridium difficile from stored specimens and comparative susceptibility of various tissue culture cell lines to cytotoxin. FEMS Microbiology Letters 34, 31–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchanan, A. G. (1984). Selective enrichment broth culture for detection of Clostridium difficile and associated cytotoxin. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 20, 74–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carroll, S. M., Bowman, R. A. & Riley, T. V. (1983). A selective broth for Clostridium difficile. Pathology 15, 165–167.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
George, W. L., Sutter, V. L., Citron, D. & Finegold, S. M. (1979). Selective and differential medium for the isolation of Clostridium difficile. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 9, 214–219.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haslam, S. C., Ketley, J. M., Mitchell, T. J., Stephen, J., Burdon, D. W. & Candy, D. C. A. (1986). Growth of Clostridium difficile and production of toxins A and B in complex and defined media. Journal of Medical Microbiology 21, 293–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holst, E., Helin, I. & Mardh, P. A. (1981). Recovery of Clostridium difficile from children. Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Diseases 13, 41–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laughon, B. E., Viscidi, R. P., Gdovin, S. L., Yolken, R. H. & Bartlett, J. G. (1984). Enzyme immunoassay for detection of Clostridium difficile toxins A and B in faecal specimens. Journal of Infectious Diseases 149, 781–788.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levett, P. N. (1984). Use of enrichment cultures for the isolation of Clostridium difficile from stools. Microbios Letters 25, 67–69.Google Scholar
Lyerley, D. M. & Wilkins, T. D. (1986). Commercial latex test for Clostridium difficile toxin A does not detect toxin A. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 23, 622–623.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Farrell, S., Wilks, G., Nash, J. Q. & Tabaqchali, S. (1984). A selective enrichment broth for the isolation of Clostridium difficile. Journal of Clinical Pathology 37, 98–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Onderdonk, A. B., Cisneros, R. L. & Bartlett, J. G. (1980). Clostridium difficile in gnotobiotic mice. Infection and Immunity 28, 277–282.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Riley, T. V., Bowman, R. A. & Carroll, S. M. (1983). Diarrhoea associated with Clostridium difficile in a hospital population. Medical Journal of Australia i, 166–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rolfe, R. D., Helebian, S. & Finegold, S. M. (1981). Bacterial interference between Clostridium difficile and normal fecal flora. Journal of Infectious Diseases 143, 470–475.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stephen, J. (1986). Difficile toxins. Proceedings of the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Journal of Medical Microbiology 22, i.Google Scholar
Teasley, D. G., Olson, M. M. & Gebhard, R. L. (1983). Prospective randomised trial of metronidazole versus vancomycin for Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea and colitis. Lancet ii, 1043–1046.CrossRefGoogle Scholar