Strategies for Optimizing the Diagnostic Predictive Value of Clostridium difficile Molecular Diagnostics
Year: 2017
Type: editorial
Abstract: ABSTRACT Because nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) do not distinguish Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and asymptomatic C. difficile carriage, the diagnostic predictive value of NAATs is limited when used in patients with a low probability of CDI. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology , Truong et al. (J. Clin. Microbiol., 55:1276–1284, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.02319-16 ) report significant reductions in hospital-onset CDI and oral vancomycin utilization at their institution following implementation of a novel intervention that leveraged their clinical bioinformatics resources to prevent C. difficile testing of stools from patients without clinically significant diarrhea and in patients with recent laxative use.
Source: Journal of Clinical Microbiology
DOI: 10.1128/jcm.00147-17
Author: Larry K. Kociolek
Institutions: Northwestern University, Lurie Children's Hospital
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2593155237