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Diagnosis of salmonellosis in adults
Last reviewed: 03.07.2025

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Indications for consultation with other specialists
A surgeon's consultation is necessary if appendicitis, mesenteric vascular thrombosis, or intestinal obstruction are suspected.
A gynecologist consultation is prescribed if there is a suspicion of an ectopic pregnancy, ovarian apoplexy, or salpingo-oophoritis.
Consultation with a cardiologist - to rule out myocardial infarction, hypertensive crisis, and to correct therapy for concomitant coronary heart disease and hypertension.
Indications for hospitalization
Severe course of the disease, presence of complications; epidemiological indications.
Epidemiological diagnostics of salmonellosis
Eating food that was prepared and stored in violation of sanitary standards, eating raw eggs. Group outbreaks. In megacities, identifying group cases of the disease is very difficult if a product contaminated with salmonella is sold through a retail network or public catering establishments. Without confirmation of the diagnosis by laboratory tests, differential diagnostics of salmonellosis with foodborne toxic infections is very difficult.
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Specific and non-specific laboratory diagnostics of salmonellosis
Bacteriological examination of feces (once or twice), vomit, blood, urine, bile, gastric lavage, and remains of suspicious products.
Salmonella antigens can be detected in blood and urine using ELISA and RGA. For retrospective diagnostics, specific antibodies are determined (RIGA and ELISA). Paired sera taken at intervals of 5-7 days are examined. A fourfold or more increase in titers is of diagnostic value.
Differential diagnostics of salmonellosis
Differential diagnostics of salmonellosis, dysentery, cholera
Clinical signs |
Salmonellosis |
Dysentery |
Cholera |
Chair |
Watery, with an unpleasant odor, often with an admixture of greenery the color of swamp mud |
Scanty, fecal-free stool with an admixture of mucus and blood - "rectal spit" |
Watery, rice-colored, odorless, sometimes with a raw fish odor |
Defecation |
Painful in the colitic variant |
With tenesmus |
Painless |
Abdominal pain |
Moderate cramping, in the epigastrium or mesogastrium |
Strong, with false urges, in the lower abdomen, left iliac region |
Not typical |
Vomit |
Multiple, precedes diarrhea |
Possible with gastroenterocolitic variant |
Multiple watery. appears later than diarrhea |
Spasm and pain in the sigmoid colon |
Possible in the colitic variant |
Characteristic |
Not marked |
Dehydration |
Moderate |
Not typical |
Typical, sharply expressed |
Body temperature |
Increased |
Increased |
Normal, hypothermia |
Chills |
Typical |
Typical |
Not typical |
Differential diagnostics of salmonellosis, acute appendicitis, thrombosis of mesenteric vessels
Clinical signs |
Salmonellosis |
Acute appendicitis |
Mesenteric vascular thrombosis |
Anamnesis |
Consumption of poor quality food, possibility of group outbreaks |
No special features |
IHD. atherosclerosis |
Onset of the disease |
Acute, with severe intoxication, clinical picture of acute gastroenteritis |
Pain in the epigastrium with movement to the right iliac region |
Acute, less often gradual, with abdominal pain |
The nature of abdominal pain |
Moderate cramping. In the epigastrium or diffuse. Disappears before the cessation of diarrhea or simultaneously with it. |
Severe, constant, worse with coughing. Persists or worsens when diarrhea stops |
Sharp, unbearable, constant or paroxysmal, without a specific localization |
Chair |
Liquid, abundant, fetid, with an admixture of greenery, multiple |
Liquid feces, without pathological impurities, up to 3-4 times. more often constipation |
Liquid, often mixed with blood |
Cramps, dehydration, chills |
During the height of the illness |
None |
None |
Examination of the abdomen |
Moderately swollen, rumbling on palpation, painful in the epigastrium or mesogastrium |
Pain in the right iliac region with muscle tension. Symptoms of peritoneal irritation are positive. |
Swollen, diffuse soreness |
Vomit |
Multiple, in the first hours |
Sometimes at the beginning of the disease. 1-2 times |
Often, sometimes with an admixture of blood |
Leukocytosis |
Moderate |
Expressed, increasing |
Expressed, increasing |
Example of diagnosis formulation
A02.0. Salmonellosis. Gastrointestinal form. Gastroenteric variant. Moderate course.