Complete and Convenient C. difficile Cytotoxin Testing Solution!

Microgen Bioproducts and Pro-Lab Diagnostics have entered into a unique marketing and sales collaboration to meet the needs of modern C. difficile cytotoxin testing.

Mike Wren's article in the British Journal of Biomedical Science¹ concludes that a single faecal toxin A/B test may be unreliable in the diagnosis of CDI and that the use of direct GDH screen, together with a sensitive C. difficile cytotoxin test, could improve the diagnosis of CDI. The utility of GDH test depends on its ability to rule out the presence of the organism.

Microgen Bioproducts and Pro-Lab Diagnostics are co-promoting a C. difficle cytotoxin testing package which combines the Prolisa™ C. difficile GDH EIA, which acts a rapid (80 minutes incubation) and reliable negative screen due to its high NPV (98.2%) and excellent specificity (97.7%), with the highly sensitive (1 pg of toxin detection limit) Hs27 ReadyCells™; a convenient gold standard cytotoxin test which overcomes the variability of toxin A/B EIA testing, to offer customers a complete, rapid and convenient C. difficile cytotoxin testing solution.

Hs27 ReadyCells™ are Human Foreskin Fibroblast (HFF) cells frozen in shell vials, which can be stored at -70°C for up to 5 months, eliminating the need for cell maintenance, preparation of cultures, wastage and associated cost and quality issues. Hs27 ReadyCells™ overcome the problems of conventional cell culture but still offer the same Gold Standard sensitivity (1 pg), as they can be thawed and inoculated in 4 minutes as well as provide a rapid result in as little as 2-6 hours. Alternatively, HFF cells can be supplied as MRHF FreshCells™ in W96 capped cluster plates with 48 wells filled in an every other row format, shipped on a weekly basis.

Both companies are enthusiastic about a unique inter-company collaboration which offers customers a C. difficile cytotoxin testing algorithm to meet their laboratory's requirements.



References:

1. M.W. D. Wren, M. Sivapalan, R. Kinson and N. P. Shetty. 'Laboratory diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infection. An evaluation of tests for faecal toxin, glutamate dehydrogenase, lactoferrin and toxigenic culture in the diagnostic laboratory. British Journal of Biomedical Science. 2009.