Assessment of levels of D-dimer and interferon-γ in pediatric patients with Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia and its clinical implication

Levels of D-dimer and interferon-γ (INF-γ) in pediatric patients with Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP) were assessed to explore its clinical implication in evaluating the disease severity and patients' prognosis. Enrolled in this study as subjects were 185 pediatric patients with MPP who were admitted to the Department of Pediatrics of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Qiqihar Medical University and the First Hospital of Qiqihar City from January 2017 to October 2017 and 115 healthy children who underwent physical examination during the same time period. Patients were divided into two groups according to the severity of their pneumonia: Severe pneumonia group with 95 patients and mild pneumonia group with 90 patients. A total of 92 healthy children were assigned to the control group. Immunoassay was performed to measure the serum levels of D-dimer and INF-γ. The levels of these two markers were compared. In terms of D-dimer, the levels in pediatric patients in pneumonia groups were all higher than that in the healthy children (p<0.0001). After treatment for 120 h, the D-dimer and INF-γ levels in both pneumonia groups were lower than those before treatment (p<0.001). Among the patients in both the mild and severe pneumonia groups, those who developed extra-pulmonary complications had higher levels of D-dimer and INF-γ than those who did not developed extra-pulmonary complications (p<0.001). Increased levels of D-dimer and INF-γ were observed in pediatric patients with MPP. Assessment of the levels of D-dimer and INF-γ in serum may help with the diagnosis of severe MPP in children and predicting the occurrence of complications. This study provided more theoretical basis for the early diagnosis and identification of MPP in children, and can be used as a guideline in evaluating the severity and preventing complications.