Diagnóstico de Escherichia coli enteroinvasiva asociada a diarrea / [Diagnosis of entero-invasive Escherichia coli associated with diarrhea]

ABSTRACT

Sixteen Escherichia coli strains isolated from diarrhea patients, characterized as enteroinvasive (EIEC) by the keratoconjunctivitis test (Sereny test), and 15 non-EIEC strains, were studied. The aim of this study was to establish a possible correlation between the Sereny test and several other tests as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and biochemical markers, which are more easily accessible to general practice laboratories. Strains were assayed for the virulence marker antigen (the outer membrane proteins) by direct ELISA, biochemical tests, antimicrobial susceptibility profile and serotyping. Mean optical density (OD) values in the ELISA were 2.018 +/- 0.336 for EIEC strains, and 0.569 +/- 0.283 for non-EIEC strains. Difference between the OD values of the two groups was found to be significant at p < 0.01 by the one-tailed Student’s test. One (6.2