title: Impact of diversity of colonizing strains on strategies for sampling Escherichia coli from fecal specimens.
abstract: Of 49 subjects, 21 were colonized with more than one strain of Escherichia coli and 12 subjects had at least one strain present in fewer than 20% of colonies. The ability to accurately characterize E. coli strain diversity is directly related to the number of colonies sampled and the underlying prevalence of the strain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6021, USA. ebbing@mail.med.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Ebbing
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lautenbach
authors.forename: Warren B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Bilker
authors.forename: Pam
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tolomeo
authors.forename: Joel N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Maslow
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology*; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged