Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The increase in Escherichia coli bloodstream infections mandates better characterisation of the relationship between commensal and invasive isolates. This study adopted a simple approach to characterize E. coli in the gut reservoir from patients with either E. coli or other Gram-negative bacteraemia, or those without bacteraemia, establishing strain collections suitable for genomic investigation. Enteric samples from patients in the three groups were cultured on selective chromogenic agar. Genetic diversity of prevailing E. coli strains in gut microbiota was estimated by RAPD-PCR. RESULTS: Enteric samples from E. coli bacteraemia patients yielded a median of one E. coli RAPD pattern (range 1-4) compared with two (range 1-5) from groups without E. coli bacteraemia. Of relevance to large-scale clinical studies, observed diversity of E. coli among hospitalised patients was not altered by sample type (rectal swab or stool), nor by increasing the colonies tested from 10 to 20. Hospitalised patients demonstrated an apparently limited diversity of E. coli in the enteric microbiota and this was further reduced in those with E. coli bacteraemia. The reduced diversity of E. coli within the gut during E. coli bacteraemia raises the possibility that dominant strains may outcompete other lineages in patients with bloodstream infection.