Significance of Yersinia enterocolitica isolates and antibody titers. A prospective study in patients with enteritis and healthy controls under bacteriological, serological, epidemiological and clinical aspects.
A simple and fast isolation procedure in combination with the search for Salmonella and Shigella spp. has been applied for the screening of Yersinia enterocolitica from the faeces. The microorganisms was isolated from 31 out of 4052 patients with gastrointestinal symptoms (0.8%) and from one out of 2295 healthy individuals (0.04%). 42% of the isolates were detected from infants up to the age of 3 years. Y. enterocolitica was excreted on the average at least 22 days after the clinical onset (n = 29). In 17 out of 24 patients (71%) significant agglutinin titers were demonstrated by the first serological examination one to 13 weeks after clinical onset. Acute diarrhoea, the most prominent symptom, lasted for 15 days and was followed in one third of the cases by a protracted course of approximately eight weeks. A reliable diagnosis of "enteric yersiniosis" rests besides the uncharacteristic clinical symptoms on the isolation of the microorganism and/or the demonstration of specific antibodies in significant titers, preferable with fourfold rise or decrease.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000372:Agglutination Tests; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005860:Germany, West; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008875:Middle Aged; D012703:Serotyping; D015009:Yersinia Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015008:Yersinia enterocolitica / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial