Japanese Clinical Practice Guidelines for Management of Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile infection

Abstract

Toxigenic culture and cytotoxicity assays are standard tests for detecting C. difficile infection (CDI). Others include immunochromatographic strips, a rapid diagnostic test that detects glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH and toxins simultaneously, and the nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) that detects C. difficile toxin-producing genes. NAAT may not be available in some facilities, so a 2-step method can be adopted where GDH-positive and toxin-negative specimens are selected first, and then toxigenic culture is performed for these specimens.