• John Jeongseok Yang, You Sun Nam, Min Jin Kim, Sun Young Cho, Eunkyung You, Yun Soo Soh, and Hee Joo Lee.
• Department of Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea. ; Department of Medicine, Kyung Hee University Graduate School, Seoul, Korea.
• Yonsei Med. J. 2014 Jul 1; 55 (4): 994-8.

PurposeClostridium difficile (C. difficile) is an important cause of nosocomial diarrhea. Diagnostic methods for detection of C. difficile infection (CDI) are shifting to molecular techniques, which are faster and more sensitive than conventional methods. Although recent advances in these methods have been made in terms of their cost-benefit, ease of use, and turnaround time, anaerobic culture remains an important method for detection of CDI.Materials And MethodsIn efforts to evaluate a novel chromogenic medium for the detection of C. difficile (chromID CD agar), 289 fecal specimens were analyzed using two other culture media of blood agar and cycloserine-cefoxitin-fructose-egg yolk agar while enzyme immunosorbent assay and polymerase chain reaction-based assay were used for toxin detection.ResultsChromID showed the highest detection rate among the three culture media. Both positive rate and sensitivity were higher from chromID than other culture media. ChromID was better at detecting toxin producing C. difficile at 24 h and showed the highest detection rate at both 24 h and 48 h.ConclusionSimultaneous use of toxin assay and anaerobic culture has been considered as the most accurate and sensitive diagnostic approach of CDI. Utilization of a more rapid and sensitive chromogenic medium will aid in the dianogsis of CDI.

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