Demographic characteristics and associated conditions in enteropathogenic Escherichia coli positive patients

Many studies have examined the epidemiology and risk factors of Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC); however, few have focused on the adult population. This study aimed to determine if EPEC was associated with certain patient populations or characteristics. We reviewed 792 hospitalized adults and children with symptomatic diarrhea who tested positive for EPEC on the BioFire Gastrointestinal (GI) Pathogen Panel and compared with symptomatic patients with no targets detected on the same panel as controls.

In the adult group the EPEC positive actual length of stay (LOS) was 13.5 days CI 95% [4.6,22.2] vs. 9.3 days CI 95% [7.9,10.5] (p = 0.14) for the control group, while in the pediatric population, both expected and actual LOS were actually longer in the EPEC negative patients than the EPEC positive patients (p ≤ 0.01 for both). In adults, 31.4% of EPEC positive patients had a past medical history of autoimmune disease, compared to 19.2% (p = 0.03) in the control group, after controlling for multiple variable testing.

To our knowledge, this association between EPEC and autoimmune disease has not been previously reported and could be mediated by gut dysbiosis, suggesting avenues for follow up studies.