BACKGROUND: Mycoplasma pneumoniae has been implicated as a significant etiologic agent of lower respiratory tract infection among children to 18 years old, however, its prevalence in younger children age 5 years and below appears to be increasing.
OBJECTIVES: This study was performed to determine the prevalence, clinical and radiologic features associated with children 5 years old and below admitted with respiratory tract infection.
METHODS: This is a prospective case control study involving children 5 years old and below with signs and symptoms of respiratory tract infection, and were tested for M. pneumoniae IgM at the Makati Medical Center and admitted between May 1, 2012 to September 30, 2012. Subjects were children with positive M pneumoniae IgM test (MPP) and controls were children with negative M pneumoniae IgM test (MPN). Clinical, radiologic and laboratory characteristics of MPP and MPN were recorded.
RESULTS: Twenty-one out of 82 (25.6%) subjects were MPP. The male to female ratio was 1:1.05 witha mean age of 34 months. Clinical, radiologic characteristic and laboratory findings between MPP and MPN were not statistically significant.
CONCLUSION: The prevalence of M. pneumoniae infection among the subjects was 25.6%. distinguish M. pneumoniae infection.