Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine antibiotic susceptibility of Clostridium difficile isolated from different sources. Two hundred stool samples of staff, patients (at admission to the wards and the same patients after seven days of hospitalization), and 135 samples of hospital environment were collected. Three standard methods including direct plating onto cycloserine-cefoxitin fructose agar, alcohol shock and enrichment culture with 0.1% sodium taurocholate were used to isolate C. difficile. All C. difficile isolates identified by biochemical tests and were tested by disk diffusion agar using 15 antibiotic disks. MIC of isolates was determined for vancomycin and metronidazol by Etest. Seventy C. difficile were isolated from different sources. No resistant isolates to vancomicin and metronidazol were detected by disk diffusion or Etest. The rate of recovery by 0.1% sodium taurocholate enrichment method and alcohol shock was significantly higher than those by CCFA (pv 0.02, pv 0.04).

Key words: Clostridium difficile, antibiotic resistance, vancomycin, metronidazol.