Abstract:Abstract:?Objective?To evaluate the application value of GeneXpert real-time fluorescence quantitation PCR(GeneXpert PCR)in the diagnosis of?Clostridium?difficile?infection.Methods?A total of 296 unrepeated stool specimens were collected from the diarrhea inpatients, and toxigenic culture(TC)and GeneXpert PCR were performed, respectively.For TC, after anaerobic culture, bacterial clones were identified by the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry(MALDI-TOF MS)and the toxin genes of?Clostridium?difficile?were?detected by PCR.Taking TC results as a reference, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of GeneXpert PCR and the consistency of the results between GeneXpert PCR and TC were evaluaed.Results?The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of GeneXpert PCR were 98.5%, 92.6%, 91.7% and 98.7%, respectively, and there was good consistency between TC and GeneXpert PCR(Kappa=0.905).Two strains of RT027 with high virulence were detected by GeneXpert PCR, and were confirmed as RT027 type?Clostridium?difficile?by Ribotyping.Conclusion?GeneXpert real-time fluorescence quantitation PCR is able to detect the toxin genes of?Clostridium?difficile?in stool specimens rapidly and accurately, and able to identify the RT027 strains with high virulence, which has important clinical application value.