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Stool Culture

Aka: Stool Culture

Indications
1. Acute Diarrhea Triad Present
  1. Abrupt onset of Diarrheal illness
  2. Diarrhea precedes Vomiting
  3. Over 4 stools per day
2. Fecal Leukocytes positive
3. Blood or pus in stool
4. Duration of Diarrhea longer than 4 to 7 days
5. Toxic appearance
  1. Clinical dysentery presentation
6. Higher risk patients with Diarrhea
  1. Children
  2. Immunocompromised patients
Efficacy
1. Test Sensitivity: 5% at best for bacterial cause identification
Components: Bacteria typically included in test
1. Salmonella
2. Shigella
3. Campylobacter
4. Escherichia coli 0157:H7 (STEC: Shiga Toxin E coli)
  1. Shiga Toxin (if bloody stool)
  2. Avoid antimicrobial agents
Disadvantages
1. Very expensive
2. Low Test Sensitivity (see above)
3. Typically does not alter management (most Diarrhea is not treated with antibiotics)

Family Practice Notebook

Patients should address specific medical concerns with their physicians.

Although access to this page is not restricted, the information found here is intended for use by medical providers.

This page was written by Scott Moses, MD, last revised on 4/8/2012 and last published on 5/14/2013.

This is one of 5887 pages in the Family Practice Notebook