Experiences from multiplex PCR diagnostics of faeces in hospitalised patients: clinical significance of Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and culture negative campylobacter.BACKGROUND
 In hospitalised patients with diarrhoea a positive campylobacter stool Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test with negative culture results as well as Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) positive stool PCRs, challenges the clinician and may lead the unexperienced clinician astray.  2) EPEC in combination with any other pathogen in the PCR multiplex array,  3) PCR positive/culture negative Campylobacter, and  4) PCR positive/culture positive Campylobacter were compared.  A total of 291 patients were included, 169 were PCR positive for Campylobacter and 122 for EPEC.  For both pathogens, co-infections were more common in culture negative/PCR positive samples than in culture positive samples.  Campylobacter culture positive patients had very high prevalence of characteristics of acute infectious gastroenteritis, whereas patients with PCR positive test results only often had an alternative explanation for their diarrhoea.  Culture positives were almost exclusively C. jejuni/coli, whereas in culture negatives, constituting a third of the total PCR positives, C. concisus was the most frequent species.  In hospitalised patients, positive PCR results for campylobacter and EPEC should be interpreted in a clinical context after evaluation of non-infectious diarrhoea associated conditions, and cannot be used as a stand-alone diagnostic tool.
PCR
In hospitalised patients with diarrhoea a positive campylobacter stool Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test with negative culture results as well as Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) positive stool PCRs, challenges the clinician and may lead the unexperienced clinician astray. 
Polymerase Chain Reaction
2) EPEC in combination with any other pathogen in the PCR multiplex array, 
PCR multiplex array