Korean J Clin Microbiol.  2004 Sep;7(2):130-134.

Clinical Significance of Escherichia coli O26 Isolated from Clinical Specimens

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Laboratory Medicine, Ulsan University Hospital, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Ulsan, Korea. 690519@hitel.net

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Non-O157 human isolates among enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) serogroup have been reported with increasing frequency in recent years; the serotype O26 is the most common among the non-O157 isolates. We performed serotyping of E. coli isolates with O157, O26, and O111 antisera at Ulsan University Hospital and identified 27 isolates of O26. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of E. coli O26 isolates.
METHODS
During the 24-month period from January 2002 to December 2003, E. coli isolates were serotyped when requested by the physician because of bloody diarrhea or when blood was noted in the stool specimen at the laboratory. The isolates were identified biochemically by Vitek 1 (BioMerieux Vitek Inc., Mo., USA) and serotyped using diagnostic antisera of O157, O26, and O111 (NIH, Korea). When a positive agglutination reaction was shown, the patient's was reviewed retrospectively.
RESULTS
Of 4,921 isolates of E. coli during the 2-year period, 200 isolates were serotyped and 27 (13.5%) were identified as serotype O26. These were isolated from stool (13 isolates), urine (9), pus (1), blood (1), and bile (1). Among the 13 patients whose stool specimens grew E. coli O26, 12 had watery diarrhea and 7 bloody diarrhea; two patients had thrombocytopenia and purpura simultaneously. Two patients with watey diarrhea, two with bloody diarrhea, and one with TTP were among the 7 patients with E. coli O26 in the urine. Finally, one patient each with blood isolate and bile isolate of E. coli O26 both had acute gastroenteritis.
CONCLUSIONS
Most of the patients infected with E. coli O26 had clinical manifestations consistent with EHEC infections. E. coli isolates from patients with boody diarrhea should be serotyped with O157 and O26 antisera.

Keyword

Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli; EHEC; O157; non-O157; O26; anti-sera test

MeSH Terms

Agglutination
Bile
Diarrhea
Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli
Escherichia coli*
Escherichia*
Gastroenteritis
Humans
Immune Sera
Purpura
Retrospective Studies
Serotyping
Suppuration
Thrombocytopenia
Ulsan
Immune Sera
Full Text Links
  • KJCM
Actions
Cited
CITED
export Copy
Close
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
Similar articles
Copyright © 2024 by Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors. All rights reserved.     E-mail: koreamed@kamje.or.kr