Association of Mycoplasma pneumoniae and asthma among Indian children

The role of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection as a trigger for asthma exacerbations is well supported in previous studies. This study was designed to investigate the role of M. pneumoniae infection in acute exacerbation of asthma in children. A total of 150 patients (110 males, 40 females) were studied and immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies to M. pneumoniae were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and PCR amplification was performed for the PI gene to associate M. pneumoniae infection with asthma. As compared with 33 children with asthma, only two of the control subjects had positive IgM titers for M. pneumoniae, which was statistically significant (P=0.002). A total of 15 children with asthma were positive by PCR for the PI gene while none of the controls had a positive PCR. Of these positive cases, 24 cases were positive only by ELISA, six were positive only by PCR and nine patients were found to be positive by both ELISA and PCR. All the clinical characteristics of the patients at baseline were comparable between the moderate and the severe group of patients statistically, except for the peak expiratory flow rate. Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection was found to have a significant association with acute exacerbation in the moderate group of asthma patients by PCR (P=0.01). These data suggest that M. pneumoniae infection may contribute to asthma exacerbation.