Does C diff produce toxins?
C. diff is a spore-forming, Gram-positive anaerobic bacillus that produces two exotoxins: toxin A and toxin B. It is a common cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) and accounts for 15 to 25% of all episodes of AAD.
What does C diff toxin positive mean?
If tests for C. difficile toxin gene and C. difficile toxin are positive, it is likely that the person’s diarrhea and related symptoms are due to the presence of toxin-producing C. difficile.
What are the 2 toxins produce by Clostridium difficile?
Pathogenic strains of C difficile produce 2 distinct toxins. Toxin A is an enterotoxin, and toxin B is a cytotoxin; both are high–molecular weight proteins capable of binding to specific receptors on the intestinal mucosal cells.
Do you treat C diff positive antigen negative toxin?
Patients with a positive test for CDI without positive results for antigen or toxin should NOT be considered to have meaningful CDI and should NOT be treated. They should be placed in isolation though as they may shed C. difficile spores which could contaminate the environment.
How do C. diff toxins work?
The toxin acts by modifying host cell GTPase proteins by glucosylation, leading to changes in cellular activities. Risk factors for C. difficile infection include antibiotic treatment, which can disrupt normal intestinal microbiota and lead to colonization of C. difficile bacteria.
Should you treat toxin negative C. diff?
These findings strongly suggest that most patients with negative toxin test results and C difficile detected by PCR do not need treatment for CDI. We suspect that most of these patients were colonized with C difficile and had another cause of diarrhea.
What is the survival rate of C. diff?
Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) has emerged as a major health care–associated infection; incidence, hospitalizations, and mortality rates are increasing (1,2). Reported case-fatality rates are 6%–30% and seem to be rising (3,4).
How long does C. diff antigen stay positive?
Up to 50% of patients have positive C diff PCR for as long as six weeks after the completion of therapy. Therefore, signs and symptoms rather than repeat testing should be used to assess whether a patient has responded to therapy for C. diff.