ota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55417, USA. johns007@umn.eduAbstractBACKGROUND: Increases in antimicrobial resistance in Escherichia coli have been paralleled by an increasing incidence of E. coli sepsis, suggesting a possible link between resistance and virulence.METHODS: All 76 multidrug-resistant (MDR) E. coli isolates (i.e., those resistant to > or =3 antimicrobial agents, including ampicillin, ce