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Purpose: After the lifting of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic, clinical observation showed an increase in complications of acute otitis, followed by a rise in the number of mastoidectomies performed. The aim of this study was to record the number of mastoidectomies performed before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic as an indicator for complications of acute otitis media., Methods: Data were collected from a tertiary hospital in a university setting, as well as from four major public health insurance companies in Germany. The data of 24,824,763 German citizens during a period from 2014 until 2023 were analyzed., Results: According to the data, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of mastoidectomies performed dropped by 54% for children aged 0-6 and by 62% for children aged 7-18. For adults, there were 30% fewer mastoidectomies performed between 2020 and 2022. After the lifting of most NPI's in the season from July 2022 to June 2023, there was a sharp increase in the number of mastoidectomies performed on patients of all ages., Conclusions: During the COVID-19 pandemic, a decrease in the number of mastoidectomies performed was seen, suggesting a lower incidence of complicated acute otitis, most likely linked to the general decrease of upper airway infections due to NPI's. In contrast, a sharp increase in the incidence of complicated otitis occurred after the hygiene measures were lifted. The current development causes a more frequent performance of mastoidectomies, thus entailing a change in the challenges for everyday clinical practice., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Aim: To investigate disease-specific gene expression profiles of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from Crohn's disease (CD) patients in clinical remission., Methods: Patients with CD in clinical remission or with very low disease activity according to the Crohn's disease activity index were genotyped regarding nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain 2 ( NOD2 ), and PBMCs from wild-type (WT)- NOD2 patients, patients with homozygous or heterozygous NOD2 mutations and healthy donors were isolated for further analysis. The cells were cultured with vitamin D, peptidoglycan (PGN) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for defined periods of time before RNA was isolated and subjected to microarray analysis using Clariom S assays and quantitative real-time PCR. NOD2 - and disease-specific gene expression profiles were evaluated with repeated measure ANOVA by a general linear model., Results: Employing microarray assays, a total of 267 genes were identified that were significantly up- or downregulated in PBMCs of WT- NOD2 patients, compared to healthy donors after challenge with vitamin D and/or a combination of LPS and PGN ( P < 0.05; threshold: ≥ 2-fold change). For further analysis by real-time PCR, genes with known impact on inflammation and immunity were selected that fulfilled predefined expression criteria. In a larger cohort of patients and controls, a disease-associated expression pattern, with higher transcript levels in vitamin D-treated PBMCs from patients, was observed for three of these genes, CLEC5A ( P < 0.030), lysozyme ( LYZ ; P < 0.047) and TREM1 ( P < 0.023). Six genes were found to be expressed in a NOD2 -dependent manner ( CD101 , P < 0.002; CLEC5A , P < 0.020; CXCL5 , P < 0.009; IL-24 , P < 0.044; ITGB2 , P < 0.041; LYZ , P < 0.042). Interestingly, the highest transcript levels were observed in patients with heterozygous NOD2 mutations., Conclusion: Our data identify CLEC5A and LYZ as CD- and NOD2 -associated genes of PBMCs and encourage further studies on their pathomechanistic roles., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.