Investigation about the homogeneity of nasopharyngeal microflora at the different location of nasopharynx of children with acute otitis media

Abstract

Nasopharynx is thought to be a very important site as becterial reservoir for acute otitis media (AOM). In this study, we investigated on the homogeneity of nasopharyngeal microflora at the different location of nasopharynx of children with AOM. Thirty nasopharyngeal samples of 15 children with AOM, two samples harvested from both nostrils of each child, were cultured and analyzed by patterns of antibiotic susceptibility and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis (PFGE). A total of 30 nasopharyngeal samples were cultured and 19 isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae from 10 children (66.7%), 8 isolates of Haemophilus influenzae from 4 children (26.7%), and 12 isolates of Moraxella catarrhalis from 7 children (46.7%) were obtained. In all children except three, the nasopharyngeal microflora at right and left orifice of the eustachian tubes showed no obvious differences in the bacterial species and quantities. Furthermore, in children with the same species of were cultured from right and left orifice of the eustachian tubes at the same time, all nine couples of S. pneumoniae isolates, four couples of H. influenzae isolates, and five couples of M. catarrhalis isolates showed about the same susceptibility and PFGE patterns. These results suggest that the microflora at the different location of nasopharynx of children with AOM is almost homogeneous, irrespective of the clinical signs.