Does Aeromonas hydrophila preferentially colonize the bowels of patients with hematologic malignancies?

Weekly cultures of stools from neutropenic patients and bone marrow transplant recipients yielded Aeromonas hydrophila from 8% of 88 patients over a 2-yr period. During this time stools in the routine enteric laboratory yielded A. hydrophila in 0.24% of 1632 patients. Although the patient groups and culture methods were not directly comparable, this significant difference in isolation rate (p less than 0.001) may reflect a higher colonization rate in the immunocompromised patient.