[Isolation of verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli from pediatric patients suffering from enteritis with bloody stool and intussusception].

We tried to isolate verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) on sorbitol-MacConkey (SMAC) agar and in part by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method from sporadic enteritis patients with bloody stools and intussusception patients who came to three pediatric clinics in the Fukuoka area from October 1990 to September 1994. VTEC O157:H7 strains were isolated from 6 (10.5%) of 57 patients with bloody stools, Campylobacter spp. 15 (26.3%), Salmonella spp. 14 (24.6%) and Yersinia enterocolitica 2. We were not able to detect VT genes by PCR from 11 of 20 patients from whose stools no causative bacteria were isolated. Massive fresh bloody stools following frequent watery diarrhea were typical of the VTEC enteritis patients. Only 1 patient had fever and 2 had leukocytosis, but the C-reactive protein in all of them was below 1+. The VTEC strains were isolated during the summer season, 1 in June, 2 in July, and 3 in September. Since in the area O157:H7 appeared to be the most prevalent VTEC serotype, SMAC is very useful for screening VTEC in bloody stools. VTEC seems to be a rare pathogen of intussusception because the organisms were detected from none of the 30 patients.