Clinical Characteristics and Laboratory Diagnoses of Pediatric Patients Hospitalized During an Outbreak of Mycoplasma pneumoniae

ABSTRACT This study prospectively collected the clinical data, information on respiratory pathogens, and laboratory findings of children with Mycoplasma pneumoniae ( M. pneumonia ) infection who were hospitalized at the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University during the M. pneumoniae outbreak in Hefei City, Anhui Province, China, between October 2023 and December 2023. We analyzed the prevalence of M. pneumoniae infection in hospitalized children during the M. pneumoniae outbreak, discrepancies in the detection of M. pneumoniae by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and serological methods, and the differences in clinical characteristics and laboratory results of patients with co‐infections of M. pneumoniae and other pathogens with the aim of providing a reference for disease assessment and clinical treatment of M. pneumoniae . A total of 270 children, 146 males and 124 females, were enrolled in the study after screening with the inclusion criteria. The most common co‐infections were adenovirus (ADV) (48 cases) and influenza A virus (FLU A) (30 cases). The prevalence of infections was higher in children under the age of 7 years (54.1%). In addition, 167 of the PCR‐positive patients were infected with macrolide‐resistant Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MRMP), suggesting that MRMP infections are common in hospitalized children. Levels of procalcitonin (PCT) (OR 15.765 [95% CI, 1.651–150.533], p < 0.017) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (OR 1.006 [95% CI, 1.003–1.009], p < 0.001) were independently predictive of co‐infections in patients infected with M. pneumoniae .