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

MORRO LS; ESPAÑOL LA; BARBERO AM; BALBI MG; MACHAIN M; ALTAMIRANDA C; ERBITI G; FIORI M; CALVO ZARLENGA M; HERNÁNDEZ DEL PINO RE; PASQUINELLI V

VIRTUAL

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

SAIC, SAI, AAFE Y NANOMED-AR

Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is the major cause of hospital-acquired diarrhea associated to antibiotics treatment in developed countries. CDI has become a health security threat and a considerable challenge to public health worldwide. The increased incidence and the severity of disease have been linked to the emergence and fast spread of hypervirulent epidemic strains. Moreover, a further increase in community-acquired infections and the zoonotic potential of C. difficile lead to a highly dynamic epidemiology of CDI. Enzyme immunoassay (EIA), a technique with high specificity but low sensitivity, is widely used as a diagnostic tool for C. difficile nowadays. To optimize the diagnosis and provide information for epidemiological surveillance strategies, the expression of glutamate dehydrogenase and toxin B (TcdB) of C. difficile was determined by EIA, direct PCR of stool samples and colony PCR of anaerobic culture. We also conducted comparative analysis to determine the performance of the direct PCR for C. difficile.Faecal samples from 81 hospitalized individuals with diarrhea were collected. Clinical and demographic data were analyzed. We found a frequency of 18.5% for toxigenic strains. Treatment with antibiotics or proton-pump inhibitors were the main risk factors for CDI present in our cohort. No differences were observed between CDI+ and CDI- individuals for the aforementioned risk factors, nor comorbidities or age distribution. However, we did detect an increase in leukocytes, lymphocytes and monocytes counts in CDI patients (p