Table 3 The prevalence of C. difficile toxinotypes and toxin genes
Toxinotype | Number of studies | Prevalence (%) | Lower limit | Upper limit | Z-value | p value | I2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C. difficile toxinotypes | |||||||
 0 | 4 | 15.6 | 4.5 | 42.2 | − 2.4 | 0.016 | 71.9 |
 III | 5 | 22.7 | 8.3 | 48.8 | − 2.0 | 0.041 | 58.4 |
 V | 9 | 64.5 | 41.9 | 82.1 | 1.3 | 0.205 | 79.2 |
 Overall | 18 | 39.1 | 25.2 | 54.9 | − 1.4 | 0.175 | 79.9 |
Test of heterogeneity between subgroups: Q value: 9.725, p value: 0.008 | |||||||
Toxin genes | Number of studies | Prevalence (%) | Lower limit | Upper limit | Z-value | p value | I2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C. difficile toxin genes detected by molecular methods | |||||||
 A | 37 | 76.8 | 68.1 | 83.8 | 5.3 | 0.000 | 64.6 |
 B | 37 | 75.9 | 66.7 | 83.2 | 5.0 | 0.000 | 68.7 |
 cdtA | 3 | 28.8 | 10.1 | 59.2 | − 1.4 | 0.165 | 0.0 |
 CTD | 27 | 49.6 | 36.9 | 62.3 | − 0.1 | 0.953 | 79.0 |
 tcdC | 6 | 41.7 | 20.6 | 66.3 | − 0.6 | 0.516 | 72.6 |
 tcdC117 | 4 | 17.6 | 5.3 | 44.7 | − 2.3 | 0.023 | 63.5 |
 tcdC18 | 9 | 19.5 | 9.6 | 35.5 | − 3.4 | 0.001 | 0.0 |
 tcdC39 | 9 | 67.4 | 48.9 | 81.7 | 1.9 | 0.064 | 68.7 |
 Overall | 132 | 61.7 | 56.2 | 67.0 | 4.1 | 0.000 | 74.7 |
Test of heterogeneity between subgroups: Q-value: 58.9, p value: 0.000 | |||||||