National Reference Laboratory for Clostridium difficile, Hôpital Saint-Antoine, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France.
Future Microbiol. 2013 Dec;8(12):1587-98. doi: 10.2217/fmb.13.129.
Diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infection is based on clinical presentation and laboratory tests. Although numerous laboratory methods are now available, the diagnosis of C. difficile infection remains challenging. Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) are the most recent marketed methods. These methods detect genes for toxins A and/or B. They are very sensitive compared with the reference method (toxigenic culture) and are thus very promising, despite their cost. However, a positive NAAT result must be interpreted with caution owing to the possible detection of asymptomatic carriers of toxigenic strains who may have diarrhea for other reasons. The place of NAATs in current diagnostic strategies needs to be better defined, but the rapidity of the result is interesting for early recognition of the disease.
艰难梭菌感染的诊断基于临床症状和实验室检查。虽然现在有许多实验室方法，但艰难梭菌感染的诊断仍然具有挑战性。核酸扩增检测（NAAT）是最新上市的方法。这些方法检测毒素 A 和/或 B 的基因。与参考方法（产毒培养）相比，它们具有很高的灵敏度，因此尽管成本较高，但非常有前途。然而，由于可能检测到产毒株的无症状携带者，他们可能因其他原因出现腹泻，因此必须谨慎解释阳性 NAAT 结果。NAAT 在当前诊断策略中的地位需要进一步明确，但结果的快速性对于早期识别疾病很有意义。
