Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2006 Apr 19:5:9.
doi: 10.1186/1476-0711-5-9.

Is Fecal Leukocyte Test a good predictor of Clostridium difficile associated diarrhea?

Savio Reddymasu  1 , Ankur Sheth, Daniel E Banks
Affiliations

Is Fecal Leukocyte Test a good predictor of Clostridium difficile associated diarrhea?

Savio Reddymasu et al. Ann Clin Microbiol Antimicrob. .

Abstract

Background: Fecal leukocyte test (FLT) is widely used to screen for invasive diarrheas including C. difficile associated diarrhea (CDAD), which account for more than 25 % of all antibiotic associated diarrhea.

Method: 263 stool samples from patients with suspected CDAD were studied simultaneously for fecal leukocyte test (FLT) and Clostridium difficile toxin assay (CDTA). FLT was performed by the Giemsa technique and CDTA was performed by enzyme immuno assay (EIA).

Results: Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of FLT as compared to CDTA were 30%, 74.9%, 13.2% and 89.3% respectively.

Conclusion: Considering the poor sensitivity of FLT, and the comparable cost and time of obtaining a CDTA at our institution, we conclude that FLT is not a good screening test for CDAD. Possible reasons for FLT being a poor predictor of CDTA are discussed.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Willmore JG, Shearman CH. On the differential diagnosis of the dysenteries: the value of the cell exudate in the stools of acute amoebic and bacillary dysentry. Lancet. 1918;ii:200–206. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(00)53677-0. - DOI
    1. Harris JC, Dupont HL, Hornick RB. Fecal leukocytes in diarrheal illness. Ann Intern Med. 1972;76:697–703. - PubMed
    1. Kyne L, Hamel MB, Polavaram R, Kelly CP. Health care costs and mortality associated with nosocomial diarrhea due to Clostridium difficile. Clin Infect Dis. 2002;34:346–353. doi: 10.1086/338260. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kyne L, Farrell RJ, Kelly CP. Clostridium difficile. Gastroenterol Clin North Am. 2001;30:753–777. doi: 10.1016/S0889-8553(05)70209-0. ix-x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. De Girolami PC, Hanff PA, Eichelberger K, Longhi L, Teresa H, Pratt J, Cheng A, Letourneau JM, Thorne GM. Multicenter evaluation of a new enzyme immunoassay for detection of Clostridium difficile enterotoxin A. J Clin Microbiol. 1992;30:1085–1088. - PMC - PubMed