Detection of Mycoplasma pneumoniae by loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay and serology in pediatric community-acquired pneumonia

Rapid diagnosis of Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia is required for treatment with effective antimicrobial agents without delay; however, this capacity has not yet been established in clinical practice. Recently, a novel nucleic acid amplification method termed loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) has been used to rapidly diagnose various infectious diseases. In this study, we prospectively evaluated the efficacy of the LAMP assay to rapidly diagnose M. pneumoniae pneumonia in clinical practice. Three hundred sixty-eight children (median age, 3.8 years; range, 0.1–14.3 years) admitted to our hospital between April 2009 and March 2010 for community-acquired pneumonia were enrolled in this study. We obtained throat swabs on admission to detect M. pneumoniae DNA and paired serum samples on admission and at discharge to assay M. pneumoniae antibody titers. M. pneumoniae pneumonia was diagnosed by either a positive LAMP assay or a fourfold or greater increase in antibody titer. Overall, 46 children (12.5% of the patients with pneumonia) were diagnosed with M. pneumoniae pneumonia; of these, 27 (58.7%) were aged less than 6 years. Of the aforementioned 46 children, 38 (82.6%) and 37 (80.4%) were identified by LAMP and serology, respectively. When the results of serology were taken as the standard, the sensitivity and specificity and positive and negative predictive values of the LAMP assay were 78.4%, 97.3%, 76.3%, and 97.6%, respectively. We concluded the LAMP assay may be useful for rapid diagnosis of M. pneumoniae pneumonia.