Mycoplasma pneumonia laboratory findings

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

Laboratory Findings

• Mycoplasma pneumonia is diagnosed by either culture, serology, or molecular methods.
• The following table demonstrates the advantages and disadvantages of each diagnostic method for Mycoplasma pneumonia:

Method	Advantages	Disadvantages	Test Setting
Culture	Provides clinical isolates for genotyping and antimicrobial susceptibilities testing 100% specificity when a positive result is obtained Commercially available SP4 media	Time-consuming Requires specialized expertise High potential for false negatives Slow growth	Reference laboratories only, not for routine diagnostics
Serology	*Commercially available kits Quantification possible	Lacks specificity Need for acute and convalescent paired sera Test results turn-around time not optimal for treatment decisions Cumbersome and time-sensitive sampling Not FDA approved	*Clinical Service: Sera provided to a clinical laboratory testing service for EIA testing
Molecular	Commercially available kits High sensitivity and specificity Rapid detection Results can be obtained in time to guide treatment decisions Useful for strain typing	Expensive Requires specialized expertise and equipment Not standardized Lack of clinical and comparative validation Limited FDA approval	Clinical Service: NP, OP, or sputum provided to a clinical laboratory testing service for qPCR testing CDC: Multiplex qPCR used for M. pneumoniae detection in NP, OP, sputum tissue, or CSF Commercial / FDA Approved: 1) FilmArray (BioFire Inc) is a nested multiplex PCR in a closed "lab-in-a-pouch" format, 2) Illumigene (Meridian Biosciences, Inc) is a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay