Abstract
Mycoplasma pneumonia due to Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection is one of the representative community-acquired types of pneumonia. Macrolide antibiotics are recommended as a first-line therapy against M. pneumoniae. However, the prolongation and aggravation of treatment have recently caused problems owing to resistance to these antibiotics. We designed a macrolide-resistant Mycoplasma detection method called the quenching probe (QP) method and compared it with the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method, direct sequence method, and rapid antigen detection test. In this study, we used specimens obtained from the pharynx of 71 patients with suspected mycoplasma pneumonia for the rapid antigen detection test. Furthermore, we used the remainder of the specimens for the rapid antigen detection test for the LAMP and QP methods. The sensitivity and specificity of the QP method were approximately equivalent to those of the LAMP method. The direct sequencing and QP methods showed mutations in 13 of 19 specimens, and the rate of agreement of both was 100.0%. Also, for all the 13 specimens in which mutation was detected, the mutation was A2063G. Compared with the rapid antigen detection test, the QP method showed a sensitivity of 47.4% and a specificity of 76.9%. In addition, the rapid antigen detection test tended to provide more false-positive results when mycoplasma pneumonia is not in season. The QP method could simultaneously detect infection and macrolide resistance mutations in M. pneumoniae, and it was considered to contribute to the early diagnosis and proper use of antimicrobial agents.
