This research aimed to investigate the diagnostic value of passive particle agglutination test, Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) culture, cold agglutination test (CAT), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and polymerase chain reaction-capillary electrophoresis fragment analysis (PCR-CEFA) for MP infection. Children with respiratory tract infections suspected to be MP infection were subjected to passive particle agglutination test, MP culture, CAT, ELISA, and PCR-CEFA. A total of 146 children (81 males, 65 females, mean age: 5.74 ± 3.32 years, and mean course of disease: 9.07 ± 5.18 days) met the inclusion criteria. The positivity rate of MP detection by MP culture was 69.18% (101/146). Using the MP culture method as the standard, higher sensitivity and positive predictive value were found in the PCR-CEFA compared with the other 3 methods. Appropriate methods are selected following the advantages and disadvantages of pathogen detection, and pediatric MP infection is analyzed by integrating various test results.
Keywords: MP culture; Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection; age; cold agglutination test; disease duration; enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; passive particle agglutination test; polymerase chain reaction-capillary electrophoresis fragment analysis.