Purpose: A prospective study was conducted in order to investigate the serologic evidence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection in Greek hospitalized patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). Furthermore, we have assessed the frequency of a number of variables in the group of patients with a serological diagnosis of an acute M. pneumoniae infection compared to patients in whom M. pneumoniae infection was not documented.
Materials/methods: One hundred patients with AECOPD were enrolled in a 29- month study period. Serum IgG, IgA and IgM M. pneumoniae antibody titers were determined during the first day of their hospitalization and 30 days after enrolment, using a commercial ELISA.
Results: Nine patients (9%) had serological evidence of an acute M. pneumoniae infection. Acute infection was mainly documented by IgA antibody titer changes. It was mainly attributed to a reinfection rather than a primary infection. Patients with serological evidence of an acute M. pneumoniae infection had a higher heart rate (99±12 versus 88±14 beats/minute, p=0.02) and a higher hematocrit value (47±4.5% versus 40.4±6.2%, p=0.004) at admission than patients without a serological diagnosis for this pathogen.
Conclusions: Serologic evidence of M. pneumoniae infection is rather common in Greek hospitalized patients with AECOPD. The determination of all three antibody classes was necessary in order to obtain an optimal level of serodiagnosis. No differences were found in the majority of characteristics of patients with and without serological evidence for this pathogen. The clinical utility of these results should be further clarified in future studies.