Prevalence of autoantibodies in Thai elderly.

To investigate the prevalence of autoantibodies in a normal Thai elderly group, the authors measured anti-thyroid antibodies (anti-thyroglobulin, anti-thyroid microsome), antinuclear antibodies (ANA) and rheumatoid factors (RF) in 429 normal elderly (206 men, 223 women, age range 50-102 years). The participants recruited from Romklao Village, Lat Krabang, a suburb of Bangkok and compared to 219 young normal subjects (110 men, 109 women; age range 19-49 years). The prevalence of anti-thyroid antibodies was significantly increased in the elderly group when compared to the younger age control group (14.69% vs 5.02%, p = 0.0005). The antibody titers were found to be higher and the prevalence was more predominant in women than in men both in the elderly (21.53% vs 7.28%, p = 0.00005) and control groups (10.09% vs 0%, p = 0.0018). The prevalence of ANA in the elderly group was lower (1.17%) when compared to the control group (4.11%). ANA were characterized by low titer of antibodies and several staining patterns, and there was no difference between men and women. For RF, the prevalence was almost the same in both groups (2.79% in the elderly and 2.73% in control group) and no difference was observed. However, when all the three autoantibodies were considered, 20.28 per cent of the elderly individuals were found to have at least one of the autoantibodies which was significantly higher than in the younger control group (11.41%, p = 0.006). The prevalence was more predominant in women than in men. The results from this study can be used as basic data for the evaluation of autoantibodies testing in an elderly Thai population.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae community-acquired pneumonia at three hospitals in Bangkok.

BACKGROUND: Mycoplasma pneumoniae is one of the common causes of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children and young adults. In Thailand, there has been no prospective study to evaluate the prevalence, clinical features and laboratory findings of M. pneumoniae in adult patients with CAP. METHOD: The authors prospectively investigated the cause of CAP in adult patients at three general hospitals from September 1998 to August 1999. Paired sera were tested for M. pneumoniae infection by using particle agglutination and definite diagnosis was based on a fourfold increase in antibody titer. RESULTS: Seventeen (21.3%) of 80 patients had pneumonia due to M. pneumoniae. Mean age was 28.3 years old (range 18-40). The most common clinical manifestations were cough (100% of cases), fever (82.4% of cases), and headache (47% of cases). Eighty-eight per cent of these patients were classified as class I category, according to the ATS guideline. All patients had a white blood cell count between 4,000-12,000 cells/mm3. In addition, the common radiographic manifestations were alveolar shadowing (53%), and mixed alveolar and interstitial shadowing (29.4%). Sixteen cases (94%) were treated with the appropriate antibiotic and all patients survived without complication. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that M. pneumoniae is a common cause of CAP in Bangkok, Thailand. This type of pneumonia usually occurs in young adults and can usually be treated as ambulatory patients.