The Relationship Between Mycoplasma Pneumonia Infection And Pediatric Wheeze

Background and Objectives:The present study summarized the clinical characteristics of Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) infection and the influence of M. pneumoniae infection on the onset of wheeze, in an effort to provide new strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of wheeze.Methods:Clinical data of606children with bronchiolitis or asthma, who were hospitalized in our hospital between January2013and December2013, were collected.586cases were finally enrolled in this study after the exclusion of20mixed infection cases. M. pneumoniae specific IgM was detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the positive result indicated M. pneumoniae infection. Then, the rate of M. pneumoniae infection in wheezing children and their clinical characteristics were further analyzed.Results:(1) M. pneuomoniae was the second most important pathogens following respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) for bronchiolitis, which accounting for10.0%(25/251). No significant differences in the detection rate of M. pneumoniae were found among the four seasons.(2) Regardless of ages and seasons, M. pneumoniae is one of the major causes of asthma in pediatric patients, accounting for19.1%(64/335). The detection of M. pneumoniae infection for0～2,2～5,5～12year old asthma children were16.3%,19.7%,23.8%. The detection rate of M. pneumoniae infection in asthma children was highest in summer, accounting for25.0%, followed by winter (20.2%), autumn (18.0%) and spring (15.0%). However, there were no statistical differences among them.(3) In the aspect of age, proportion of fever, fever duration and hospital days, it showed no significant difference between children with M. pneumoniae-caused bronchiolitis and children with RSV-caused bronchiolitis. Although the M. pneumoniae-infected group had more severe cases (25.3%) than RSV-infected groups (8.0%), the differences between them were not significant.(4) Among asthma children, M. pneumoniae-infected cases were older than RSV-infected ones. However, M. pneumoniae-infected group did not show significant difference in terms of proportion of fever, proportion of severe cases, fever duration and hospital days, when compared to RSV-infected group.(5) The detection rate of M. pneumoniae infection in asthma children under the age of two (16.3%) was higher than that in bronchiolitis children (10.0%), but no statistical differences were observed.Conclusions:M. pneumoniae infection is one of the crucial causes of wheezing, especially in children with asthma.