Otitis media (OM) is a group of inflammatory diseases of the middle ear and is the most frequent cause of physician visits and antibiotic prescriptions for children. Current diagnostic methods do not differentiate acute otitis media from otitis media with effusion, as both types of OM share many symptomatic features. A cohort of around 50 patients undergoing myringotomy were enrolled in this study, where Raman spectroscopy (RS) allowed non-invasive determination of OM subtype. Here we demonstrate the potential for RS to probe OM infection status in pediatric patients, to guide treatment protocol for ear infections and limit over-prescription of antibiotics.
Otitis media (OM) is the leading cause of acute physician visits and prescription of antibiotics for children. Current standard techniques to diagnose acute otitis media (AOM) are limited by their ability to probe only changes in symptoms of the bacterial infection that cause AOM. Furthermore, they are not able to detect the presence of or identify bacteria causing AOM, which is important for diagnosis and proper antibiotic treatment. Our goal is to detect the presence of and identify the pathogens involved in causing AOM based on their biochemical profile using Raman spectroscopy (RS). An inVia confocal Raman microscope (Renishaw) at 785 nm was used to detect bacteria causing AOM in vitro. The three main bacteria that cause AOM, Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, and Streptococcus pneumoniae were cultured in chocolate agar and Mueller-Hinton agar to determine which agar type would minimize Raman signal from the growth agar. Preliminary results identified specific Raman spectral features characteristic of S. pneumoniae. RS has the potential to accurately diagnose AOM, which will help in identifying the antibiotic that will be most beneficial for the patient and ultimately decrease the course of infection.
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