Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iranian Journal of Microbiology 2008-3289 15 1 2023 02 15 55 61 Sunandini Kapoor Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhopal, India Shashwati Nema Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhopal, India Debasis Biswas Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhopal, India Sagar Khadanga Department of General Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhopal, India Saurabh Saigal Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhopal, India Mahesh Maheshwari Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhopal, India 2022 06 01 2022 10 27 Background and Objectives: The misuse of antibiotics in recent years has led to an increase in antibiotic associated diarrheas (AAD). Out of several implicated pathogens, Clostridioides difficile is responsible for causing 15-25% of all cases of AAD. However, it has remained under diagnosed for a long time. The current study is planned to explore prevalence of C. difficile amongst AAD patients and to study clinical presentation and associated risk factors. Materials and Methods: Hospital based cross sectional study conducted in patients above 2 years of age. Diagnosis of C. difficile was done by two modalities i.e. glutamate dehydrogenase test followed by toxin detection using enzyme immunoassay and stool culture followed by toxin gene detection. Results: Twelve of 65 patients (18.4%) were positive for C. difficile. Maximum cases were found in younger age group. Abdominal pain and fever were most common complaints. 12 (18.4%) out of 65 study subjects were found to be positive by ELISA. 2/65 (3%) patients were positive for culture with presence of only tcdB gene. Ceftriaxone was the most commonly used antibiotic (25%). Conclusion: C. difficile is significant pathogen implicated in AAD with a prevalence rate of 18.4%. GDH antigen detection followed by Toxin A/B ELISA for C. difficile yielded better detection rate as compared to stool culture. https://ijm.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijm/article/view/3753 https://ijm.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijm/article/download/3753/1542