Immunoassay Screens for Clostridium difficile Infection

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 26 Jul 2011

Rapid and accurate screening of patients with suspected Clostridium difficile infection is achieved with a new immunoassay.

The Prolisa C. difficile glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) enzyme immunoassay (EIA) utilizes a mouse monoclonal GDH antibody, and offers a high negative predictive value to rule out C. difficile infection quickly and easily.

A product of Pro-Lab Diagnostics’ (Toronto, Canada) the Prolisa C. difficile GDH EIA is a manual immunoassay, available in a 96-well test size, which has also been optimized and validated for the most widely used automated platforms. Reagents are supplied in larger volumes as standard, to accommodate automated systems and provide more flexibility, and are also available separately, with comprehensive lot-to-lot compatibility.

C. difficile infection can be identified more efficiently and economically by initially screening for GDH rather than by testing for toxins alone. Mark Reed, General Manager of Pro-Lab Diagnostics, explained, “Screening for GDH as a marker present in toxigenic and nontoxigenic strains of C. difficile followed by tests for toxin A or toxin B on GDH-positive samples, is an easy, quick, and cost-effective way to test for C. difficile infection, as several UK customers are already finding.”

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