CT features of mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia in adult patients

Objective To analyze the CT imaging characteristics of Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia in 35 adult patients in order to guide the preliminary clinical diagnosis of Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia.Methods The chest CT scans obtained from 35 adult patients with serologically proven Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia were retrospectively reviewed.CT scans were analyzed independently by two observers.Results ①There were 9 cases(25.7%) of male and 26 cases(74.3%) of female among the 35 patients and the morbidity rate of female was significantly higher than that of male(χ2=8.26;P0.005).②In the 25 patients with unilateral abnormalities,there were 19 cases with abnormalities in left lung,and only 6 cases with abnormalities in right lung。The abnormalities in left lung were more frequent than those in right lung(χ2=6.76;P0.01).In all cases,the abnormalities in left lower lobes(23/35,65.7%) were more frequent when compared with the other lobes(χ2=15.709;P0.01).③Areas of ground-glass attenuation on CT were identified in 97.1% of the patients and their CT imaging characteristics included ground-glass attenuation becoming the large shadow of air-space consolidation gradually(71.4%),or scattered multiple patchy areas of air-space consolidation(74.3%) in the ground-glass attenuation,or the above two patterns present in the same cases(48.6%),or scattered multiple small nodular shadows in the ground-glass attenuation(68.6%).Pleural effusions and enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes were seen in 40.0% and 28.6% of the patients respectively.Conclusion The morbidity rate of Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia in female was significantly higher than that in male and the abnormalities in the left lung more frequent than those in the right lung.The characteristics of its chest CT image can provide some hints for the diagnosis of Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia.