TY - JOUR AU - Suárez, Margarita María AU - Elorza, Mussatyé AU - Donado, Jorge Hernando AU - Londoño, Luis Alfredo AU - Espinal, David Andrés PY - 2011/06/13 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of pediatric patients with positive serology for Mycoplasma pneumoniae, treated in the third level hospital from 2006 to 2008 JF - Colombia Medica JA - Colomb Med VL - 42 IS - 2 SE - Original Articles DO - 10.25100/cm.v42i2.764 UR - https://colombiamedica.univalle.edu.co/index.php/comedica/article/view/764 SP - 138-143 AB - <small style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Introduction:</span> Infection by Mycoplasma pneumoniae is becoming more frequent at younger ages. It appears as a generally benign and unspecific clinical condition of respiratory symptoms and sometimes responsible for a broad spectrum of extrapulmonary manifestations.<br style="font-family: Arial;" /> </span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Objective:</span> To describe demographic, clinical, laboratory, and treatment characteristics of pediatric-age patients with positive serology for M. pneumoniae diagnosed at the Pablo Tobón Uribe Hospital (HPTU) during the 2006-2008 period.</span><br style="font-family: Arial;" /> <span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Materials and methods:</span> Observational, retrospective study, which describes the demographic, clinical, laboratory, and treatment characteristics of patients from 1 month to 14 years of age with positive IgM for M. pneumoniae seen at HPTU during September 2006 and November 2008.</span><br style="font-family: Arial;" /> <span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Results:</span> We reviewed 305 clinical charts of patients with positive IgM for M. pneumoniae. The average age was 5.15 years ± 3.62 SD. Cough (87.5%), fever (65.9%), rhinorrea (39.3%), and respiratory difficulty (38%) were the most frequent clinical findings. Extrapulmonary compromise was mainly manifested in the skin (12.8%), the central nervous system (CNS) (3.6%), and osteomuscular system (3.9%). Auscultation and thoracic X-ray were normal in 33.1% and 30.8% of the patients, respectively. Episodes of asthma exacerbation were related to infection by Mycoplasma in 35% of the cases. A total of 51% of the patients required hospitalization with an average stay of seven days. All the patients received antibiotic treatment; clarithromycin (75.8%) was the antibiotic of choice. </span><br style="font-family: Arial;" /> <span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Conclusion:</span> Infection by M. pneumoniae has a broad range of clinical manifestations, requiring a high index of clinical suspicion and an active search for extrapulmonary compromise given that in our realm there is no specific diagnostic method for the acute infection.</span></small> ER -