Prevalence and virulence characteristics of Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli in a case- control study among patients from Iran.

Prevalence and virulence characteristics of Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli in a case- control study among patients from Iran. J Med Microbiol. 2015 Mar 26; Authors: Bafandeh S, Haghi F, Zeighami H Abstract Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) is an important agent of diarrheal diseases worldwide. The role of EAEC virulence factors in the clinical outcome of infection is not completely defined. This case-control study investigated the prevalence of EAEC, its virulence genes and antimicrobial resistance profile of adult patients with and without diarrhea attending three different hospitals in Zanjan, Iran. A total of 550 individual stool specimens (350 from diarrheal patients and 200 from patients without diarrhea) were collected. One hundred forty one EAEC isolates identified by HEp-2 cell assay and PCR. EAEC isolates were detected with slightly higher frequency in patients with (27.7%) than in patients without (22%) diarrhea (P> 0.05). The EAEC genes aggR, aap and pet were identified more frequently in case patients compared with controls (P< 0.05). The most EAEC isolates in the diarrheal patients had two or more virulence genes compared with those without diarrhea (P< 0.05). EAEC isolates exhibited high level resistance to amoxicillin (82.3%), co-amoxiclav (78%), aztreonam (73.8%), tetracycline (66.6%) and ceftazidime (63.8%). Also, 53.2% of isolates were resistant to at least three different classes of antimicrobi...
Source: Journal of Medical Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: J Med Microbiol Source Type: research