Abstract
The role of Aeromonas (Aer) in the etiology of pediatric diarrhea is incompletely defined. It is unclear whether identification of isolates at the species level or performance of toxigenicity studies help distinguish pathogenic from non-pathogenic strains. We isolated Aer from 33 of 704(children whose fecal specimens were submitted to the Microbiology Laboratory of Children's Medical Center, Dalls, over a I-year period. Isolates were identified as Aer using the API 20E system. Additional tests performed on 29 strains included gas from glucose, salicin fermentation, growth in KCN, esculin hydrolysis, and elastase production. A. caviae was the predominant species (n = 19, 66%). A. sobria and A. hydrophila accounted for 3 each and 4 (14%) strains could not be speciated. Toxin production by Aer was studied using CHO cell, adrenal Y1 cell, suckling mouse, and rabbit ileal loop assays. Twelve (39%) of 31 strains were positive in at least one of these assays including 3 (17%) of 18 A. caviae and all 9 non-caviae strains tested. Two toxigenic strains were from asymptomatic older children. Toxigenic strains were significantly more likely to be positive for arginine dihydrolase (p <0.05), lysine decarboxylase (p <0.001), and Voges-Proskauer reaction (p <0.01), produce gas from glucose (p <0.001), and not ferment arabinose (p <0.005) compared with non-toxigenic strains. We conclude that Aer differentiation at the species level is of limited clinical value and that several biochemical reactions can serve as markers for toxin production.
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Freij, B., Shelton, S., Lima, A. et al. SPECIES DIFFERENTIATION AND BIOCHEMICAL MARKERS FOR TOXIGENICITY IN FECAL AEROMONAS ISOLATES FROM CHILDREN. Pediatr Res 21 (Suppl 4), 325 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198704010-00945
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198704010-00945