Diagnosis of E. coli

Getting a diagnosis of E. coli is an important step in protecting your legal rights. Please contact us about E. coli testing if you have any questions.

To diagnose illness as an E. coli infection, stool cultures must be taken. Laboratory workers take the stool sample and plate it in different medium to see if E. coli O157:H7 or a similar pathogen is isolated.

It is not always standard procedure for labs to test for E. coli infection, or specifically E. coli O157:H7. So if you believe you could have been exposed to E. coli through raw hamburger, vegetables, or contaminated water, you should request to be tested for E. coli O157:H7. The specific test for E. coli O157:H7 is done using a medium called Sorbitol-MacConkey agar.

Other tests, such as the Meridian IC-STAT device, have been studied and found accurate and cheap but are not as sensitive as a stool culture (2).

After E. coli O157:H7 is confirmed, blood tests are taken to monitor the development of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).  Most cases of HUS-E. coli are children. Doctors must also monitor E. coli patients for colitis, neurological symptoms (including seizures), appendicitis and intussusceptions (where one part of the bowel slides into an adjoining part) (1).

If you are diagnosed with E. coli, you or your doctor should notify your local and state health departments. To protect your legal rights, you should also contact our law firm at 1-888-377-8900. If you would prefer, you can email our lawyers.

Sources

1. Tarr PI, Neill MA. Esherichia coli O157:H7. 2001. Gastroenterol Clin North Am. 30:3: 735-751.

2. Stapp JR, Jelacic S, Yea Y-L, et al. 2000. Escherichia coli 0157H7 detection: Coproantigen analysis compared with sorbitol-MacConkey agar stool cultures. J Clin Microbiol. 38: 3404.