Abstract
The purpose of this study is to determine the Clostridium difficile toxin genotypes and the prevalence of binary toxin genes. We investigated 587 stool specimens with suspected CDAD submitted between April 2010 and March 2011 and between July 2012 and December 2012. As a result, of the 587 stool specimens examined by culture, 18.9% were positive and 81.1% were negative for the toxin genes. We examined the toxin type of 107 toxin-gene-positive specimens. The breakdown of toxin genotypes was as follows: 60.7%, toxin A+B+; 15.0%, toxin A−B+; 24.3%, toxin A−B−. In addition, binary-toxin-gene-positive strains were found in one specimen. The binary-toxin-gene-positive strains analyzed by PCR ribotyping and slpA sequence typing were identified as having the slpA sequence type y05-02/PCR ribotype hu13027. In conclusion, epidemiological studies of C. difficile using methods such as culture examination, toxin genotyping, and binary toxin gene analysis are considered to be very important for understanding the current status of the epidemic strains of C. difficile in a region and in individual hospitals.
