Evaluation of a real-time method of simultaneous amplification and testing in diagnosis of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection in children with pneumonia

• Published in: PloS one 2017-05, Vol.12 (5), p.e0177842-e0177842
• Main Authors: Li, Wei, Fang, You-Hong, Shen, Hong-Qiang, Yang, De-Hua, Shu, Qiang, Shang, Shi-Qiang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Absorbance; Age; Amplification; Antibodies; Assaying; Bacteria; Beads; Biology and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Buffers; Care and treatment; Cell culture; Centrifuging; Child; Child, Preschool; Children; Clinical medicine; Colony-forming cells; Computer programs; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Diagnosis; Dilution; DNA; DNA probes; DNA-directed RNA polymerase; Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; Evaluation; Extraction; Female; Fluorescence; Fluorescent indicators; Health aspects; Hepatitis; Hepatitis C; Humans; Immunoglobulin M; Infant; Infections; Influence; Laboratories; Leukemia; Lymphocytes T; Lysis; Male; Medical diagnosis; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Methods; Molecular Diagnostic Techniques - methods; Mycoplasma pneumoniae; Mycoplasma pneumoniae - genetics; Mycoplasma pneumoniae - immunology; Pathogens; Pediatrics; Pellets; Pneumonia; Pneumonia, Mycoplasma - blood; Pneumonia, Mycoplasma - microbiology; Political activity; Political aspects; Polymerase chain reaction; Populations; Probes; Public health; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods; Reproducibility of Results; Research and Analysis Methods; Respiratory tract; Ribonuclease; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; RNA polymerase; Samples; Sensitivity and Specificity; Serologic Tests - methods; Serological tests; Statistical analysis; Thorax; Tuberculosis; Viruses
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177842

Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) infection can cause community acquired pneumonia in children. A real-time method of simultaneous amplification and testing of M. pneumoniae (SAT-MP) was developed to diagnose M. pneumoniae targeting a region of the ribosomal RNA. The SAT-MP assay can accurately identify M. pneumoniae with a detection range from 101 to 107 CFU/ml. In this study, the specimens from 315 children with pneumonia were collected and analyzed by SAT-MP in parallel with real-time PCR method and IgM ELISA assay. The positive rates of these specimens examined by SAT-MP assay, real-time PCR method and IgM ELISA assay were 16.51%, 15.56% and 12.70% respectively. While there was statistical significance (p = 0.04) between SAT-MP assay and IgM ELISA assay, no statistical significance (p = 0.25) was found between SAT-MP assay and real-time PCR method and these two methods had high consistency (kappa value = 0.97). These findings indicate that the newly developed SAT-MP assay is a rapid, sensitive and specific method for identifying M. pneumoniae with potential clinical application in the early diagnosis of M. pneumoniae infection.