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Molecular Characterization of Toxigenic Clostridium difficile in a Northern Italian Hospital

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Abstract

Clostridium difficile is responsible for more than 90 % of cases of antibiotic-associated diarrhea and pseudomembranous colitis. The most important virulence factors are two toxins called enterotoxin A and cytotoxin B; some C. difficile strains contain the C. difficile binary toxin (CDT). The aim of our study was to prospectively analyze C. difficile clinical isolates in a single center to determine the molecular features of collected strains. Among the 252 isolates, 217 were A + B + (86.1 %), 33 were A + B + cdt + (13.1 %) and 2 were A − B + (0.8 %). There were 15 different ribotypes with a predominance of 018.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Infectious Diseases Unit, Department of Medical Sciences, Amedeo di Savoia Hospital, University of Turin, Corso Svizzera 164, 10149, Turin, Italy

    Francesco G. De Rosa, Silvia Corcione & Giovanni Di Perri

  2. Laboratory of Microbiology and Virology, Department of Public Health and Pediatric Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

    Paolo Cavallerio, Caterina Parlato, Lucina Fossati, Roberto Serra & Rossana Cavallo

Authors
  1. Francesco G. De Rosa
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  2. Paolo Cavallerio
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  3. Silvia Corcione
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  4. Caterina Parlato
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  5. Lucina Fossati
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  6. Roberto Serra
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  7. Giovanni Di Perri
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  8. Rossana Cavallo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Silvia Corcione.

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De Rosa, F.G., Cavallerio, P., Corcione, S. et al. Molecular Characterization of Toxigenic Clostridium difficile in a Northern Italian Hospital. Curr Microbiol 70, 154–155 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-014-0690-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-014-0690-9

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