Pneumococcal acute otitis media in children.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the clinical and laboratory findings of Streptococcus pneumoniae acute otitis media in children during a 1 year period.


METHODS
From October 1995 to September 1996, 113 children aged 2 months to 14 years (median 18 months), with S. pneumoniae acute otitis media were studied. Susceptibility testing was performed by the Kirby-Bauer method and the E-test, and serotyping by the Quellung reaction.


RESULTS
E-test assays detected five isolates (4.4%) to be highly resistant to penicillin and 13 (11.5%) that had intermediate resistance. All isolates were found to be susceptible to vancomycin, rifampicin and cefotaxime. In total, 25 isolates (22.1%) were resistant to one or more drugs. Fifty per cent of the penicillin-resistant or intermediately resistant S. pneumoniae isolates were resistant to multiple drugs, whereas only 2.1% of the penicillin-susceptible isolates were resistant to multiple drugs. The predominating serogroups of the isolates with reduced susceptibility to penicillin were the 19 (61.1%), 9 (16.7%), 23 (11.1%), 6 (5.5%) and 14 (5.5%) whereas those of the susceptible isolates were the 19 (26.3%), 14 (13.7%), 3 (11.6%), 6 (11.6%), 9 (8.4%), 1 (5.3%) and 12 (5.3%).


CONCLUSIONS
Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates from children with acute otitis media were penicillin-insensitive in 15.9%. The multiresistant S. pneumoniae isolates belonged to serogroups: 19 (45.4%), 9 (27.3%), 6 (18.2%) and 23 (9.1%).
Kouppari
G
G
Microbiology Laboratory, Medical School, University of Athens, M. Asias 75, Goudi, Athens 11527, Greece.
Zaphiropoulou
A
A
Stamos
G
G
Deliyianni
V
V
Apostolopoulos
N
N
Legakis
N J
NJ
D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D018432:Drug Resistance, Multiple; D004432:Ear, Middle / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D010033:Otitis Media / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology*; D012703:Serotyping; D013290:Streptococcal Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology*; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000472:pathogenicity
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents