A simple diagnostic method for Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia was attempted by agglutination test with M. pneumoniae antigen.
The antigen was prepared from broth culture of M. pneumoniae, Mac strain. It was believed to be the important factors in preparing the antigen that highly concentrated M. pneumoniae suspension should be made and M. pneumoniae aggregates in it should be homogenized, for example, by trypsin solution.
The method of the test was very simple; one drop of antigen and one drop of undiluted serum were mixed on a glass plate at room temperature and the reading was done within two minutes.
The sensitivity of this test was compared with that of complement fixation (CF) test on 118 paired serum specimens of pneumonia patients and it was proved that this test was almost as sensitive as CF test.
The specificity of this test was shown to be considerably high enough for diagnostic use. But it was also shown that false positive diagnosis as a result of nonspecific reaction might occur occasionally though not so frequently. To elucidate this problem further studies would be necessary.
It may be mentioned at this step of the study that the agglutination test is recommended, for its simplicity, to be employed as a routine screening test for M. pneurnoniae pneumonia.

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Surface tension of guinea pig lung extracts and of dipalmitoyl lecithin (DPL) solution were measured before and during the in vitro exposure to ozone for the period of 25 to 60 minutes. Concentration of ozone used for the study ranged from 0.5ppm to 12.3ppm.
Marked rise in the minimum surface tension occurred after the exposure in most observations. The maximum surface tension remained almost unchanged. After the subsequent exposure to air the minimum surface tension decreased to the initial value in two observations out of eight experiments while in other six experiments the values remained elevated. Ozone did not cause any detectable change in surface tension of DPL solution.
The present observation suggests that unsaturated fatty acids in the lung phospholipids are a primary target of ozone to cause change in the minimum surface tension of the lung extracts.

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