Children and pregnant women are more likely to develop severe Mycoplasma pneumoniae Pneumonia：Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection in Suzhou: 2014 to 2018

Abstract

Purpose To study the epidemic characteristics of Mycoplasma pneumonia(MP) in the whole population and the clinical characteristics of severe Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia(SMMP). Methods We retrospectively analyzed 56474 patients with respiratory tract infections (RTIS) of the affiliated hospital of Nanjing medical university from 2014 to 2018. Serum particle agglutination (PA) was used to detect MP specific IgM antibody to confirm MP infection. Results A total of 56474 patients with RTIs were enrolled, and 15857 (28.13%) of patients with MP-IgM positive were detected. From 2014 to 2018, the annual proportion of MP RITs was 23.60%, 28.18%, 38.08%, 27.05% and 23.44%. In terms of seasonal distribution, April-June and September-November were the peak seasons each year. The proportion of MP RITs of children was significantly higher than that of adults in almost every year. The proportion of MP RITs of female was significantly higher in children and adults. The peak age of MP infection was between the age of 4 and 14 years old. There were 216 cases of SMPP patients, including 198 children and 18 adults (8 cases of pregnant women). Children and pregnant women were more likely to develop severe Mycoplasma pneumonia. SMMP patients had more extrapulmonary symptoms, multilobar infiltrates and pleural effusion, and increased CRP, LDH and WBC(p < 0.05). Conclusions This study shows that MP infection has a seasonal, gender, and age distribution trend, and SMMP is more likely to occur in children and pregnant women. Understanding these characteristics will contribute to timely diagnose and treat MP infection.