Mycoplasma pneumonia in children of the Smolensk region in 2023 and 2024: focus on clinical and laboratory parallels

Abstract

Recent observations show that cases of mycoplasma pneumonia (MРP) occur not only in the older age group, but also in young children, with severe fever and symptoms of intoxication, and an increase in the number of cases of refractory pneumonia and multisystem complications. Objective: conduct a comparative analysis and identify the features of clinical manifestations and the results of additional examination methods in children with MРР in the Smolensk region for the period from 01.01.23 to 31.12.23 (n = 116) and from 01.01.24 to 31.12.24 (n = 85). Results: Over the studied time periods, the structure of MРР incidence was dominated by children of the older age group. 89% of children in 2024 showed signs of fever intoxication syndrome at the time of hospitalization. Bronchoobstructive syndrome was registered in 8% of patients. 35% of children had bradycardia, a violation of the body's adequate adaptive response to fever in the form of increased heart rate. The main complications during the time periods studied were: respiratory failure of the 1st and 2nd degrees, pleurisy. Cases of co- and superinfections are presented. The most frequently detected changes in peripheral blood were: erythrocytosis, relative lymphocytosis, thrombocytosis, increased ESR and CRP. The initial drug of choice at the outpatient stage was most often amoxiclav, which is due to the absence of «classic» symptoms of MРР, which does not allow one to suspect the atypical etiology of the disease at an early stage. Conclusion. In most cases, MРР in children did not have «classical» clinical and laboratory features, which significantly hampered timely diagnosis and, consequently, lengthened the start time of etiotropic therapy. In addition, there was no parallelism between clinical symptoms and laboratory markers.