Efficacy of the World Health Organization-recommended handwashing technique and a modified washing technique to remove Clostridium difficile from hands.

Background: The efficacy of the World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended handwashing technique against Clostridium difficile is uncertain, and whether it could be improved remains unknown. Also, the benefit of using a structured technique instead of an unstructured technique remains unclear.

Methods: This study was a prospective comparison of 3 techniques (unstructured, WHO, and a novel technique dubbed WHO shortened repeated [WHO-SR] technique) to remove C difficile.

Correlation between Clostridium difficile bacterial load, commercial real-time PCR cycle thresholds, and results of diagnostic tests based on enzyme immunoassay and cell culture cytotoxicity assay.

The impact of Clostridium difficile fecal loads on diagnostic test results is poorly understood, but it may have clinical importance. In this study, we investigated the relationship between C. difficile fecal load and the results of four assays: a glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) enzyme immunoassay (EIA), a toxin A/B antigen EIA (ToxAB), a cell culture cytotoxicity assay (CCA), and PCR targeting the tcdB gene.