Detection and Toxin Typing of Clostridium perfringens in Formalin-Fixed, Paraffin-Embedded Tissue Samples by PCR

Since current microbiology methods are not suitable to detect Clostridium perfringens in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue samples, we developed a PCR assay to detect toxin-encoding genes and the 16S rRNA gene of C. perfringens. We successfully detected and genotyped C. perfringens in tissue sections from two autopsy cases.