Comparison of a Commercial Multiplex Real-Time PCR to the Cell Cytotoxicity Neutralization Assay for Diagnosis of Clostridium difficile Infections

A commercial multiplex real-time PCR assay (Cepheid Xpert C. difficile assay) for the diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infection was evaluated. The sensitivity and specificity of the Cepheid assay were 97.1% and 93.0% for fresh stools, using the cell cytotoxicity neutralization assay as the reference. Using PCR ribotyping as the reference for ribotype 027 strains, the corresponding figures were 100% and 98.1%, respectively.