
Antibiotic resistance patterns of pathogenic Escherichia coli isolated from southeastern Korean patients with acute diarrhea from October 2023 to June 2024: a cross-sectional surveillance study
Original article Suyeon Jo, Byoungkuk Kim, Boyeong Kwon, Kwanghyun Kim, Minhyeok Kim, Kihyung Park Department of Laboratory Medicine, Seegene Medical Foundation, Busan, Korea Correspondence to Suyeon Jo E-mail: freedom96@naver.com; Kihyung Park E-mail: p0413@mf.seegene.com Ann Clin Microbiol 2026;29(1):4. https://doi.org/10.5145/ACM.2026.29.1.4Received on 12 January 2026, Revised on 26 February 2026, Accepted on 27 February 2026, Published on 11 March 2026.Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology.This is an Open Access article which is freely available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Abstract Background: Pathogenic Escherichia coli (PEC) is a leading cause of acute diarrhea worldwide. With increasing antibiotic use, antimicrobial resistance in PEC has become a significant public health concern. In this study, we investigated the distribution and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of PEC isolated from patients with acute diarrhea in the Busan and Gyeongnam regions of South Korea. Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional laboratory-based study, 272 PCR-positive residual




