Prevalence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection in Upper Egypt

ABSTRACT

The study included 90 patients, 38 of them with pneumonia, 24 patients with acute bronchitis, 24 patients with upper respiratory infection and 4 patients with bronchial asthma complicated by emphysema in addition to 21 apparently healthy controls. Isolation of M. pneumoniae was done by cultivation of different respiratory specimens onto mycoplasma agar media and selective biphasic media. Detection of both unspecifically and specifically produced antibodies to M. pn. was carried out for all sera by cold hemagglutination test [CHA] and complement fixation test [CF]. The results revealed that, M. pn. was prevalent in 15.6% of all cases studied and in 18.4% of cases of pneumonia. The highest age prevalence of M. pn. infection was 6-17 years old. Bacteriological isolation and identification of the organisms was successful only in 71.4% of seropositive patients. The selective biphasic media were found to be superior to mycoplasma agar media. The complement fixation had a sensitivity and specificity of 100%, while cold hemagglutination test had a sensitivity 64.3% and a specificity of 100%