Respiratory Viruses and Acute Otitis Media

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 340; no. 25; pp. 2001 - 2002
• Main Authors: Pitkäranta, A, Hayden, F G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Massachusetts Medical Society 24.06.1999
• Subjects: Acute Disease; Child; Ear, Middle - virology; Humans; Otitis Media with Effusion - virology; Respiratory Syncytial Viruses - isolation & purification; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Rhinovirus - isolation & purification; RNA, Viral - analysis
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJM199906243402513

To the Editor: Heikkinen et al. (Jan. 28 issue) 1 studied the prevalence of various respiratory viruses in samples of middle-ear effusions from children with acute otitis media and found that respiratory syncytial virus had the highest rate of detection. Although respiratory viruses may differ in their capacity to invade the middle ear, any comparison of the frequencies of and differences in infection depends heavily on the sensitivity of the methods used to determine the presence of viral infection. The methods used by Heikkinen et al. were not optimal for detecting certain respiratory viruses, particularly human rhinoviruses and coronaviruses. In a . . .