EVALUATION OF SEROPREVALENCE OF MYCOPLASMA PNEUMONIAE SPECIFIC IGM AND IGG ANTIBODIES IN ASYMPTOMATIC PRESCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is one of the main causes of community acquired pneumonia in children with an incidence of nearly 40%.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the serum levels of IgM and IgG antibodies to identify Mycoplasma pneumoniae in laboratory samples of in asymptomatic preschool aged children in Urmia, Iran.

The present cross-sectional study was performed on 260 preschool children who referred to the pediatric clinic of Shahid Motahari Hospital in Urmia in January 2018 without any respiratory symptoms. Detection of IgM and IgG antibodies against Mycoplasma pneumonia was performed on the samples using specific ELISA kit, according to the manufacturer's instructions. IgM and IgG antibody titers more than 12 U / mL considered as positive, less than 8 U / mL as negative, and between 8 and 12 U / mL as intermediate result (. SPSS 21 software was used for data analysis.

According to the results of this study, 25.8 percent of children had at least one episode of mycoplasma pneumonia infection. Statistically significant relationship was detected between the positivity of IgG and IgM and attending kindergarten in the studied children (P=0.001). There was no significant relationship between positivity of IgG and IgM with sex (P values = 0.14 and 0.60, respectively), age (P values = 0.58 and 0.54, respectively), and age group (P values = 0.19 and 0.49, respectively) of the children.

There was a significant relationship between positive IgG and IgM antibody titers and presence in kindergarten, but there was no significant relationship between IgG and IgM antibody positivity with sex and age group.