TOX NEG Trial: Clostridium Difficile Diagnosis and Treatment

The purpose of this study is to determine the risks and benefits of antibiotic treatment for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) among patients whose stool samples are nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) positive and enzyme immunoassay (EIA) negative for C. difficile. Currently, healthcare facilities use a wide variety of tests and strategies for identifying patients with CDI; both EIA and NAAT are widely used. There is no clear gold standard for identifying CDI. At WUSM and BJH, patients are only treated for CDI if they have a positive EIA. However, at many other healthcare facilities, the standard of care is to treat for CDI if the patient is NAAT positive. Some patients who are NAAT-positive may not have true CDI; while this treatment is standard of care at many facilities, the risk and benefits of treating these patients for CDI is unknown. We propose to perform a double blinded, randomized controlled non-inferiority trial of antimicrobial of patients who are EIA negative, NAAT positive to determine the risks and benefits of CDI treatment in this population.