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Phillip I. Tarr, Marguerite A. Neill, Carla R. Clausen, Sandra L. Watkins, Dennis L. Christie, Robert O. Hickman, Escherichia coli 0157:H7 and the Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome: Importance of Early Cultures in Establishing the Etiology, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Volume 162, Issue 2, August 1990, Pages 553–556, https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/162.2.553
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Abstract
Fifty-two patients were studied prospectively to determine the etiology of postdiarrheal hemolytic uremic syndrome (DUS). Escherichia coli 0157:H7 was isolated from 33 patients (63.4%). If stool obtained within 2 days of the onset of diarrhea was cultured for E. coli 0157:H7, the recovery rate was 100%. This rate decreased to 91.7% and 33.3% if stool was cultured for this pathogen 3–6 or ⩾7 days, respectively, after diarrhea began. The culture-positive group was more likely to have had bloody diarrhea and fecal leukocytes and to have received transfusions than the culture-negative group but was otherwise similar in clinical characteristics. E. coli 0157:H7 is the predominant pathogen associated with HUS in western Washington. Recovery ofthis pathogen is highly dependent on obtaining stool cultures within 6 days of onset of diarrhea.