This paper reports the results of the first study in which Streptococcus salivarius 24SMB, a safe α-haemolytic strain capable of producing bacteriocin-like substances with significant activity against acute otitis media (AOM) pathogens, was intranasally administered in an attempt to reduce the risk of new episodes of AOM in otitis-prone children. In this prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 100 children aged 1-5 years with histories of recurrent AOM were randomized 1:1 to receive an intranasal S. salivarius 24SMB or placebo twice daily for 5 days each month for 3 consecutive months. Fifty treated children and 47 who received placebo who were compliant with study protocol were followed monthly for 6 months. The number of children who did not experience any AOM was higher among the children treated with the S. salivarius 24SMB preparation than among those in the placebo group (30.0 vs 14.9%; p = 0.076). Moreover, the number of children who received antibiotics during the study period was lower among the children treated with S. salivarius 24 SMB than among those who received placebo (70 vs 83.0%; p = 0.13). Compared with the children who were not colonized by S. salivarius 24SMB after treatment, the number of colonized children who experienced any AOM was significantly lower (42.8 vs 13.6%; p = 0.03). Similar results were observed when the children treated with antibiotics for AOM were analysed (67.8 vs 95.5%; p = 0.029). This study revealed the ability of intranasally administered S. salivarius 24SMB to reduce the risk of AOM in otitis-prone children.

Background: Otitis-prone children can present some distinctive clinical patterns and although a number of known risk factors for recurrent acute otitis media (RAOM) are known, no dedicated epidemiological models have been developed to explain clinical heterogeneity.Methods: A preliminary retrospective pilot study was planned to evaluate the possible effect of allergic disease in the development of different disease phenotypes in otitis-prone children aged 3–10 years, particularly the absence (simple RAOM), or presence of episodes of otitis media with effusion between acute infections (RAOM with OME).Results: Analysis was based on the data contained in 153 charts (55.6% males, mean age of 59.4 ± 16.4 months). 75.8% of children had a simple RAOM and 24.2% a RAOM with OME. Atopy or allergy were documented in respectively 47.7 and 41.3% of children considered as a whole. The prevalence of atopy or allergy was significantly higher in the children with a RAOM with OME (atopy: 73.0 vs. 39.5%, p < 0.001; allergy: 60.0 vs. 36.1%, p = 0.049), who also more frequently showed adenoidal hypertrophy (p = 0.016), chronic adenoiditis (p = 0.007), conductive hearing loss (p = 0.004), and impaired tympanometry (p < 0.001).Conclusions: These data suggest that children with a RAOM with OME are clinically different from children with simple RAOM, as they have a more complex clinical presentation that includes not only adenoidal disease and audiological impairment, but also an underlying allergy or atopy. The possibility that the factors mentioned above may be differently involved in the heterogeneous clinical manifestations occurring in otitis-prone children needs to be further investigated in ad hoc epidemiological studies.

Adenotonsillectomy (ADT) is one of the most widely used procedures in the treatment of paediatric recurrent acute tonsillitis (RAT) and obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS), both of which have significant repercussions on the patients’ quality of life (QoL). The purpose of our review of literature was to highlight the great variety of tools that are currently used to evaluate QoL in children, to examine data available on their efficacy and the feasibility of their use in daily clinical practice, and to determine possible limitations related to an indirect and subjective assessment of QoL in children.Although the use of different parameters makes it difficult to compare the published studies, an analysis of the evidence currently available in the literature suggests that ADT has a generally positive impact on the QoL (especially in case of OSAS). It also highlights the importance of combining tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy in the treatment of OSAS, and documents the comparability of tonsillectomy and tonsillotomy in improving obstructive symptoms. In conclusion, our findings suggest that literature supports that ADT is associated with positive changes in QOL; however further studies using comparable standardised criteria are necessary to confirm the size and duration of this benefit.

Background Children with vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC) present symptoms that are similar to other ocular allergies, but more pronounced, and are controlled using topical steroids. To avoid excessive and prolonged use of topical steroid eye drops, over the past 20 years galenic eye drops of cyclosporine with a concentration of 1% to 2% and tacrolimus with a concentration of 0.1% have been introduced as a treatment for the severe and unresponsive forms. The main symptoms of VKC occur most frequently during the spring and tend to get worse during the summer, meaning that affected children tend to avoid exposure to sunlight. The aim of this study was to assess the most common cell types present in the conjunctiva of children with VKC, how ocular treatment can influence them, and whether affected children express a typical conjunctival pattern, which could be useful as a pathognomonic pattern of VKC, allowing us to study this rare eye disease. Method This was a cohort study of 56 children, of whom 17 were not receiving any treatment at the time of testing, 14 were using steroid eye drops or had taken them in the previous 10 days, and 25 were treated with cyclosporine eye drops or tacrolimus eye drops 0.1%. Result Children in group 1 (no topical therapy) express more epithelial cells, neutrophils, mast cells, eosinophils, and lymphocytes than the other two groups. Conclusion Given the ease of performance, when conducting further longitudinal studies, the conjunctival cytology examination could be used, on the one hand, to diagnose VKC, especially when the clinical diagnosis is uncertain, and, on the other, to follow disease evolution and monitor the response to topical treatment.

The principal aim of this review is to present the current knowledge regarding acute otitis media (AOM) with spontaneous tympanic membrane perforation (STMP) and to address the question of whether AOM with STMP is a disease with specific characteristics or a severe case of AOM. PubMed was used to search for all studies published over the past 15 years using the key words "acute otitis media" and "othorrea" or "spontaneous tympanic membrane perforation". More than 250 articles were found, but only those published in English and providing data on aspects related to perforation of infectious origin were considered. Early Streptococcus pneumoniae infection due to invasive pneumococcal strains, in addition to coinfections and biofilm production due mainly to non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae, seem to be precursors of STMP. However, it is unclear why some children have several STMP episodes during the first years of life that resolve without complications in adulthood, whereas other children develop chronic suppurative otitis media. Although specific aetiological agents appear to be associated with an increased risk of AOM with STMP, further studies are needed to determine whether AOM with STMP is a distinct disease with specific aetiological, clinical and prognostic characteristics or a more severe case of AOM than the cases that occur without STMP. Finally, it is important to identify preventive methods that are useful not only in otitis-prone children with uncomplicated AOM, but also in children with recurrent AOM and those who experience several episodes with STMP.

Nasal cytology has become a valuable tool in the assessment of a multitude of nasal pathologies in children. Collection methods differ significantly and even though the use of the nasal curette is regarded as the most reliable in adults, most practitioners use the nasal swab in children. However, no studies have validated the reliability and supposed better tolerability of the latter. We have compared these two sampling methods regarding their tolerability and analysed the diagnostic accuracy of the cotton nasal swab (NSW) to identify nasal cytotypes and rhinitis phenotypes, using nasal scraping (NSC) for comparison. In a multicentric prospective study we recruited 208 children and performed nasal cytology by means of NSW and NSC. Microscopic evaluating of the nasal cytotypes was performed and tolerability of NSW and NSC was tested. Our data revealed a significantly inferior diagnostic accuracy of NSW compared to NSC regarding reliability and cell counts. Our study is the first to shed light on the role of the sampling tools for pediatric nasal cytology. We documented a poor diagnostic accuracy of NSW, thus suggesting using only the nasal curette in clinical practice. Furthermore, tolerability did not differ between the two, refuting the common thesis that swabs are to be preferred when doing nasal cytology in children.

Evaluation of the genetic contribution to the development of recurrent acute otitis media (rAOM) remains challenging. This study aimed to evaluate the potential association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in selected genes and rAOM and to analyze whether genetic variations might predispose to the development of complicated recurrent cases, such as those with tympanic membrane perforation (TMP).A total of 33 candidate genes and 47 SNPs were genotyped in 200 children with rAOM (116 with a history of TMP) and in 200 healthy controls.INFγ rs 12369470CT was significantly less common in the children with rAOM than in healthy controls (odds ratio [OR] 0.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.25–1, P = 0.04). Although not significant, interleukin (IL)-1β rs 1143627G and toll-like receptor (TLR)-4 rs2737191AG were less frequently detected in the children with rAOM than in controls. The opposite was true for IL-8 rs2227306CT, which was found more frequently in the children with rAOM than in healthy controls. The IL-10 rs1800896TC SNP and the IL-1α rs6746923A and AG SNPs were significantly more and less common, respectively, among children without a history of TMP than among those who suffered from this complication (OR 2.17, 95% CI 1.09–4.41, P = 0.02, and OR 0.42, 95% CI 0.21–0.84, P = 0.01).This study is the first report suggesting an association between variants in genes encoding for factors of innate or adaptive immunity and the occurrence of rAOM with or without TMP, which confirms the role of genetics in conditioning susceptibility to AOM.

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