[Application of gas chromatography to identification of Clostridium difficile].

With chromatograph produced in our country, the gas chromatograms of fatty acid metabolites of five strains of Clostridium difficile isolated from stool of patients with tumor and one strain for control were compared and analysed by using stainless steel chromatographic column, 15% modified polyethylene glycol stationary phase nitrogen carriergas 140 degrees C column temperature and 190 degrees C detector temperature. The chromatograms of the isolated strains and the control strain were found to be extremely similar. All of them were peaks of acetic, propionic, isobutyric, butyric, isovaleric, valeric, and isocaproic acid. In comparison, the peaks of acetic, butyric, and isocaproic acid were higher, those of the isobutyric and isovaleric acid were medium and those of propionic and valeric acid were lower. Moreover, a low, flat peak appeared at 14th minute and was similar to that of p-cresol reported by Berg et al. The results of our experiment revealed that gas chromatography may be used as a simple, quick method for the identification of Clostridium difficile.