Heat-stable enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli and necrotizing enterocolitis: lack of an association.
During an outbreak of diarrhea in a special care nursery caused by heat-stable enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (serotype 078:H11:K80), nine (4.3%) of the 205 infants in the nursery developed necrotizing enterocolitis. Cases of necrotizing enterocolitis were not significantly more common in infants colonized or infected with these organisms; heat-stable enterotoxigenic E. coli was isolated from 5(56%) of nine cases of necrotizing ecterocolitis and from 27(38%) of the 71 infants without necrotizing enterocolitis who were also cultured. Our findings suggest that caution should be taken in implicating enterotoxigenic E. coli as a cause of necrotizing enterocolitis.
D000818:Animals; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000382:microbiology; D003968:Diarrhea, Infantile / Q000382:microbiology; D004761:Enterocolitis, Pseudomembranous / Q000382:microbiology*; D004767:Enterotoxemia / Q000382:microbiology; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000472:pathogenicity; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D012703:Serotyping
D004768:Enterotoxins