TY - JOUR T1 - Stool consistency: no hard and fast rules for the diagnosis of VTEC infection JF - Journal of Clinical Pathology JO - J Clin Pathol SP - 837 LP - 837 DO - 10.1136/jclinpath-2016-203792 VL - 69 IS - 9 AU - Shirley Ross AU - Isabelle O'Callaghan AU - Rachel Jermy AU - Liam Blake AU - Daniel Corcoran AU - Roy D Sleator AU - Brigid Lucey Y1 - 2016/09/01 UR - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/69/9/837.abstract N2 - Verotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) is a serious gastrointestinal pathogen associated with significant morbidity and mortality in developed countries1 and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that the ideal stool sample for the detection of VTEC is community-acquired diarrhoeal specimens.2 However, we consider that the processing of samples as high or low risk according to stool consistency is likely to result in underdiagnosis and under-reporting of VTEC infection. Apart from stool consistency, underdiagnosis may also be attributable to the methods for the detection of VTEC employed by diagnostic laboratories, often being biased in favour of the O157 serotype, particularly where the method of detection is culture based, thus resulting in the under-reporting of non-O157 VTEC serotypes. In order to capture all … ER -