Use of heat shock for culturing Clostridium difficile from rectal swabs

• Published in: Clinical infectious diseases 1993-01, Vol.16, p.no. 4 sul.-no. 4 sul.
• Main Authors: Hanff, P A, Zaleznik, D F, Kent, K C, Rubin, MS, Kelly, E, Cote, J, Rosol-Donoghue, J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Clostridium difficile
• ISSN: 1058-4838

It is well established that selective agar and broth media are necessary for recovering Clostridium difficile from stool specimens or rectal swab specimens. These methods were used for detecting C. difficile in rectal swab and stool specimens collected from surgical patients at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston as part of an epidemiologic study of C. difficile . During the course of this study, we discovered that occasionally culture of a swab specimen did not yield C. difficile whereas tissue culture assay of a stool specimen taken from the same patient on the same day was positive for cytotoxin B. We also noted cases in which culture of a swab specimen yielded C. difficile on a particular day whereas the results of previous and subsequent cultures were negative for the organism. To investigate the basis of these potential discrepancies, swab and stool specimens were recultured after pretreatment with heat shock. Use of this technique prior to culture enhances detection of C. difficile by reducing the bacterial burden in the sample.