Seroprevalences of Mycoplasma pneumoniae IgM Antibodies among Children Living in Jeju Island, Korea

Kyutaeg Lee; Woo Jin Kim; Dong Lyul Kim; Jae Hyang Kim; Moo Sang Chong

doi:10.3343/lmo.2014.4.3.146

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Lee, Kim, Kim, Kim, and Chong: Seroprevalences of Mycoplasma pneumoniae IgM Antibodies among Children Living in Jeju Island, Korea

Original Article

Diagnostic Immunology

Laboratory Medicine Online 2014; 4(3): 146-151.

Published online: 1 July 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3343/lmo.2014.4.3.146

Seroprevalences of Mycoplasma pneumoniae IgM Antibodies among Children Living in Jeju Island, Korea

Kyutaeg Lee, M.D.¹, Woo Jin Kim, M.D.¹, Dong Lyul Kim, M.D.¹, Jae Hyang Kim, M.T.¹, Moo Sang Chong, Ph.D²

¹Department of Laboratory Medicine, Cheju Halla General Hospital, Jeju, Korea.

²Department of Clinical Pathology, Cheju Halla University, Jeju, Korea.

Corresponding author: Kyutaeg Lee. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Cheju Halla General Hospital, 65 Doryeong-ro, Jeju 690-766, Korea. Tel: +82-64-740-5256, Fax: +82-64-740-5657, kyutaeg@daum.net

Received 11 May 2013 Revised 23 July 2013 Accepted 15 October 2013

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Background

Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) is a major cause of community-acquired pneumonia in children. The particle agglutination (PA) assay is a clinical test routinely used to detect MP infection and to determine total MP antibody titers. Using this assay, however, it is difficult to differentiate between IgM and IgG antibodies. The aim of this study was to investigate the seroprevalence of MP IgM antibodies in children living in Jeju Island.

Methods

We investigated the seroprevalence of mycoplasma IgM antibodies in 1,693 patients in the age of 0-10 yr who were ordered for mycoplasma IgM antibody testing in Cheju Halla Hospital between April 2011 and March 2013. Results were classified according to age, sex and the month and year during which the samples were obtained.

Results

The overall positive rate for mycoplasma IgM antibody was 24.7% and was higher in females than in males (P=0.012). The positive rate was lowest in infants under 6 months of age, and gradually rose with increasing age until the age of 4 yr. A major increase in positive rates was observed between January-April of 2012 and minor cyclical increases were also observed at 2-4 month intervals during the study period.

Conclusions

The seroprevalence of mycoplasma IgM antibodies rises gradually with age until the age of 4 yr. A major peak in MP IgM antibody-positive cases was observed in early 2012, with minor cyclical increases at every 2-4 months. These results will be helpful in the interpretation and diagnosis of MP in children living in Jeju Island.

Keywords: Mycoplasma pneumoniae, IgM antibody, Jeju, Seroprevalence

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

Seropositive rates (%) for Mycoplasma pneumoniae IgM antibodies by age and sex.

Fig. 2

Seropositive rates (%) for Mycoplasma pneumoniae IgM antibody detection according to month/year of sample acquisition and sex.

Table 1

Number of patients and positive rates (%) for Mycoplasma pneumonia IgM antibody detection separated by age group and sex

^*Number of patients that were positive for Mycoplasma pneumoniae IgM according to age group; ^†Number of total patients in each age group.

Table 2

Number of patients and positive rates (%) for Mycoplasma pneumoniae IgM antibody detection by month/year of sample acquisition and sex

^*Number of patients that were positive for Mycoplasma pneumoniae IgM separated by month/year group; ^†Number of total patients in each month/year group.

Notes

This article is available from http://www.labmedonline.org

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