Epidemiological markers of Clostridium difficile

The identification of Clostridium difficile as a major enteric pathogen that causes nosocomial infections has necessitated the development of typing methods both to provide a better understanding of the epidemiology of this organism, and some insight into the pathogenicity of various strains. Several fingerprinting and typing methods have been developed based on phenotypic and molecular epidemiological markers. Phenotypic markers include antibiotic resistance, bacteriocin and bacteriophage susceptibility patterns and protein electrophoretic profiles including radiolabelled proteins. Immunological markers have been used to develop typing methods based on Western blotting profiles and serogrouping using slide agglutination. More recently the profiles of volatile products produced by pyrolysis mass spectrometry (PMS) have also been used in the fingerprinting of C. difficile.