The spontaneous otitis media in rickety rats

This paper is aimed to study the incidence and hearing impairment of spontaneous otitis media in rickety rats during a longterm vitamin D deficient breeding. Thirty Sprague-Dawley rats ranged from 20 to 25-day-old were used, and vitamin D deficient rickets models were established. Another thirty rats were used as the normal control. It was found that both normal and rickety rats had the possibilities of suffering from otitis media (mainly exudative) during the two-month-breeding. The incidence of otitis media in normal rats was 5% (3 from 60 ears), while that in the rickety ones was 16.67% (10 from 60 ears). It is believed that a rickety sufferer may be in higher danger of having otitis media than the normal one.