Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Cocuk Enfeksiyon Dergisi, cilt.15, sa.1, 2021 (ESCI)
Objective: Lower respiratory tract infections are one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in children worldwide. Besides, epidemiolog-ical data on this subject is very limited. Mycoplasma pneumoniae is an important bacterial agent in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and may cause mild, moderate and severe lower respiratory tract infections. Clinical diagnosis is very difficult. Material and Methods: In this study, it was aimed to determine the se-roprevalence of M. pneumoniae in children aged 0-17 years admitted to a medical faculty in Istanbul with lower respiratory tract complaints or non-respiratory findings such as cytopenia and arthritis/arthralgia and to determine the prevalence of infection among children in various age groups. One hundred and thirty-four patients were included in the pres-ent study. Venous blood and nasopharyngeal swab samples were taken from study patients. M. pneumoniae IgG and IgM antibodies were deter-mined by ELISA (Enzyme Liquid Immunoassay) test in blood samples and M. pneumoniae Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test was performed in nasopharengeal swab samples. Results: Seropositivity was seen in 50 (37.3%) patients, only specific IgM antibody positivity in 5 (3.7%) patients, both specific IgM antibody and specific IgG antibody positivity in 8 (6%) patients and 37 (27.6%) patients specific IgG antibody was also observed. The number of M. pneumoni-ae DNA RT-PCR positive samples was shown to be only 2 (1.5%), both of which were not serologically positive. Conclusion: Our results show a significant prevalence of M. pneumoniae in children diagnosed with acute respiratory infection. It also highlight the importance of laboratory detection for appropriate and rapid antibiotic treatment.