Thursday, December 12, 2019
There are special tests that represent quantitative and qualitative immunoassays conducted with the purpose of identifying human antibodies that are directed against Mycoplasma pneumoniae. This helps to define immunoglobulin classes individuals possess. This, in turn, gives necessary information about exposure to pathogen and disease state.
Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections lead to the development of a whole number of respiratory syndromes. Some of them are ordinary and even trivial, others pose a danger to a patient’s life. They mainly reveal themselves in the form of primary atypical pneumonia, pharyngitis and tracheobronchitis. According to the statistics, around 20% out of the total number of ambulatory cases of pneumonia that occur in the USA are caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection. Thus, the frequency of infection is pretty high.
In case of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections, such as RSV-, Influenza Virus-infections, the process of the causal agent detection can present significant difficulties because of the wide range of clinical symptoms, especially when there is atypical pneumonia. Mycoplasma pneumoniae settles in epithelia of the trachea, bronchia and bronchiolae. After the initial period that can last for 10—20 days, there appear non-specific symptoms like headache and fever together with a non-productive, dry cough. With time, the infection can cause the development of an interstitial pneumonia.
In case of older children and young adults Mycoplasma pneumoniae is held accountable for approximately 15—20% of ambulant obtained cases of pneumonia. Super infections with Mycoplasma pneumoniae are considered to be common in children and go after viral and bacterial infections.
When patients are children under 5, there can be observed no symptoms of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections. In some cases the revealed symptoms can be assigned to mild symptoms of the respiratory tract. Since immunity after infection is not complete, this can lead to infections being repeated and they can become even more severe.
As there is usually a wide range of clinical symptoms as well as probable causal agents, diagnosis should include not only the clinical picture. It is of great importance to resort to serological and direct detection methodologies that are necessary for defining the pathogen that is hold accountable. This will make it possible to use the right medical intervention strategies.
The CFT has been employed in Mycoplasma pneumoniae diagnosis for a long time already. At the same time, its disadvantage is low specificity as it works on the LPS that has the cross-reactive nature. As far as ELISA tests are concerned, they are more specific in terms of antigen preparations that are capable of distinguishing immunoglobulin classes. Thus, they produce better diagnostic value of the results.