The concentration of penicillin V in serum and middle ear exudate in acute otitis media in children.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to K Lundgren.
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It is possible to combine hybridization to specimens on electron-microscope grids of nucleic-acid probes labelled nonisotopically with immunogold detection of hybrid sites to map the position of target sequences rapidly and precisely. The basic technique is described, and examples are provided to illustrate the types of questions which can be approached in the general area of higher-order chromosome organization and function. A combination of two differentially labelled probes and two different-sized gold particles permits the simultaneous detection of closely linked or interspersed sequences.
It is now established that serous otitis media (SOM) is an inflammatory reaction of the mucosa of the middle ear. A number of microbiological factors are contributory causes. It is clear, among other things, that the microbiologic environment in the nasopharynx in SOM is the same as that in acute otitis media. Neither adenoidectomy and tonsillectomy nor treatiment with conventional chemotherapeutics has proved effective for eradicating pathogenic bacteria from the nasopharynx. Intense research to find new antibiotics and effective means may be one way of getting us out of our present therapeutic dilemma. Other possibilities are to try to produce polyvalent bacterial vaccines and to increase our knowledge of the immunology of the nasopharynx.
Sixty-one patients, aged six months to ten years, with acute purulent otitis media were treated with penicillin V for ten days. The drug was given twice a day in a total daily dose of 50 mg/kg body weight. The concentration of penicillin was determined in serum and in middle ear exudate on one of the first six days of treatment, 60, 120 or 180 minutes after administration of the drug. Bacterial cultures were taken from the nasopharynx before and during treatment and from the middle ear exudate at the time of myringotomy. The serum level of penicillin decreased during treatment. There was also a decrease in penicillin concentration of the middle ear exudate during treatment. This decrease was most pronounced during the first two days. In a few cases Haemophilus influenzae was found in the middle ear exudate during treatment. In these cases the concentration of penicillin in the exudate was found to be higher than the mean concentration at corresponding times. The rapid decrease in the exudate concentration of the drug two to three days after the beginning of therapy may suggest that the patients responded to the treatment and that it is the initial concentration that decides whether an infection will respond to the therapy. High exudate concentrations later on seem to be due mainly to a continuation of the inflammatory reaction and had slight or no clinical effect. Thus, the present investigation produced no strong evidence for a ten-day treatment compared with, for example, a five-day treatment.
Two hundred and ninety-seven children, aged 6 months to 7 years, with AOM were treated with penicillin V. One hundred and forty-eight children were given 25 or 50 mg/kg body weight twice a day for 5 days, and 149 children 25 mg/kg body weight twice a day for 10 days. No differences were found in the rate of healing between the 5- and 10-day groups. The larger penicillin dose, which was given to half the 5-day group, did not lead to improved healing. Treatment with penicillin for 5 days instead of 10 does not mean any increased risk of complications such as SOM, relapses, or therapeutic failure. Nor does the risk of a recurrence of otitis increase either. The investigation showed that the treatment of AOM with penicillin for 10 days, which is the rule in Sweden, can be reduced to 5 days with maintained satisfactory healing and without risk of increasing the number of complications.