Molecular Diagnosis of Mycoplasma Pneumonia Isolated from Hospitals in Hafer Al Batin, Saudi Arabia.

Background: Mycoplasma pneumoniae is often responsible for community-acquired pneumonia and Lower Respiratory Tract Infections (LRTI). Objective: This study aimed to develop a novel duplex real-time PCR assay to detect M. pneumoniae, which includes a built-in internal real-time PCR control and to assess real-time nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA) compared to conventional PCR. Methods: A total of 103 samples from 110 clinical patients with LRTI were analyzed using duplex real-time PCR, NASBA and conventional PCR. Clinical symptoms and laboratory findings, e.g., Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR), C-Reactive Protein (CRP) were compared between M. pneumoniae-positive patients and those with other LRTIs. Results: Evaluation of 103 test samples revealed Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection in 14 (13.59%) of 110 patients with LRTI using a combination of molecular tests. A comparison of clinical symptoms existed between patients with M. pneumoniae-positive and those with different lower respiratory tract infections. The clinical presentation between M. pneumoniae infections showed various characteristics, including a lower patient age combined with chill symptoms and a higher level of ESR and CRP, levels that produced statistically significant results (p<0.05). Molecular diagnostic approaches performed better than other methods for the identification of M. pneumoniae, providing faster and more accurate results. Conclusion: The study concluded that PCR along with loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) provides a highly sensitive and specific diagnostic evaluation that serves as a beneficial diagnostic alternative for the clinical diagnosis of Mycoplasma pneumoniae.