Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection in children with acute respiratory infection

A prospective study was performed on 93 children admitted to Kasturba Medical College Hospital, Manipal and TMA Pai Rotary Hospital of Udupi and Karkala. Blood samples from 93 children admitted to the ward with no respiratory illness were taken as age-matched controls for the inpatients, IgM antibody against Mycoplasma pneumoniae was detected using a commercial kit (Virion-Serion ELISA, Germany) following the manufacturer's instructions. 23.96% of the inpatients with respiratory tract symptoms had IgM antibodies against Mycoplasma pneumoniae. The highest infection rate was found to be in the 2-5 and 5-10 year age group. The most common mode of presentation was an upper respiratory focus of infection with cervical lymphadenopathy. Bronchial breathing signifying pneumonic consolidation was significantly less in the Mycoplasma positive group (p=0.006). There was no statistically significant difference in the radiological findings in the Mycoplasma positive and Mycoplasma negative groups.