MOLECULAR DETECTION OF CLOSTRIDIOIDES DIFFICILE BY DIRECT PCR: NEW TOOLS FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF C. DIFFICILE INFECTION

MORRO LS; ESPAÑOL LA; BARBERO AM; PALMA S; BALBI MG; MACHAÍN M; ALTAMIRANDA C; ERBITI G; FIORI M; CALVO ZARLENGA M; HERNANDEZ DEL PINO RE; PASQUINELLI V

Congreso; Reunión Conjunta SAIC, SAI, AAFE, NANOMED-AR; 2021

Sociedad Agentina Inmunología/Sociedad Agentina de Investigación Clínica

Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is the major cause of hospital-acquired diarrhea associated to antibiotics treatment in developedcountries. CDI has become a health security threat and aconsiderable challenge to public health worldwide. The increasedincidence and the severity of disease have been linked to the emergenceand fast spread of hypervirulent epidemic strains. Moreover,a further increase in community-acquired infections and the zoonoticpotential of C. difficile lead to a highly dynamic epidemiology ofCDI. Enzyme immunoassay (EIA), a technique with high specificitybut low sensitivity, is widely used as a diagnostic tool for C. difficilenowadays. To optimize the diagnosis and provide information forepidemiological surveillance strategies, the expression of glutamatedehydrogenase and toxin B (TcdB) of C. difficile was determinedby EIA, direct PCR of stool samples and colony PCR of anaerobicculture. We also conducted comparative analysis to determine theperformance of the direct PCR for C. difficile.Faecal samples from 81 hospitalized individuals with diarrhea werecollected. Clinical and demographic data were analyzed. We founda frequency of 18.5% for toxigenic strains. Treatment with antibioticsor proton-pump inhibitors were the main risk factors for CDI presentin our cohort. No differences were observed between CDI+ and CDIindividualsfor the aforementioned risk factors, nor comorbidities orage distribution. However, we did detect an increase in leukocytes,lymphocytes and monocytes counts in CDI patients (p