NEONATAL ESCHERICHIA-COLI INFECTION AND SEGMENTAL ARTERIAL NECROSIS -SIMILARITY TO EDEMA DISEASE OF WEANLING SWINE

A 32-wk gestation female patient had Escherichia coli pneumonia, hyali ne membranes, and pulmonary hemorrhage and died 20 h after birth. E. c oli was cultured from the placenta and from both lungs at autopsy, In the lungs and other organs, bland segmental necrosis of the wall of sm all arteries and arterioles was observed, It was morphologically indis tinguishable from that seen in naturally occurring and experimentally induced edema disease of swine, which suggests both conditions may sha re a common pathogenesis. In swine, the disease is caused by Shiga-lik e enterotoxin-producing E. coli. To our knowledge, this is the first d ocumentation of edema disease-like arterial lesions in humans.