Extraintestinal Escherichia coli isolations from SIDS cases and other cases of sudden death in Victoria, Australia

This investigation is an extension of previous studies on the possible role of intestinal Escherichia coli in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) to i nclude the isolation of extraintestinal E. coli. The lungs of 52 and the bl ood of 144 SIDS infants were cultured and isolates were investigated. E. co li was isolated from about a quarter of post-mortem lung samples and about 15% of blood samples from SIDS infants. The isolates were subjected to micr obiological studies, including serotyping and haemolysin assays. The majori ty were found to belong to serogroups commonly associated with bacteraemia. These results may indicate that extraintestinal E. coli plays a role in SI DS. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.