The prevalence of penicillin non-susceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae (PNSSP) is increasing among isolates from acute otitis media (AOM). Repeated episodes of antibiotic exposure are a well-known risk factor for the isolation of PNSSP although otitis-prone or recurrent AOM cases frequently require repeated courses of antibiotic treatment. In order to evaluate the chronological alteration of S. pneumoniae during recurrences of AOM, strains of S. pneumoniae were isolated from 11 patients, each of whom had experienced 2-4 episodes of AOM, were examined. Every bacterial specimen obtained from a single episode of recurrent AOM was examined by PCR-based penicillin-binding protein (PBP) assay, serotyping, and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), then compared to other samples from the same case. Two cases (18.2%) showed strain diversity during repeated antibiotic treatments by serotyping or PBP-assay. By AFLP analysis, 6 cases (54.5%) demonstrated heterogeneous strains during recurrent AOM. Clonal survivors of previous episodes of AOM were not always the cause of subsequent episodes of AOM, even in otitis-prone cases.
