Symptoms of mycoplasmosis (mycoplasmal infection)

The incubation period of mycoplasmosis (mycoplasmal infection) lasts 1-3 weeks. Sometimes 4-5 weeks. The disease can occur in a variety of clinical forms: from the lungs of the catarrh of the upper respiratory tract to severe draining pneumonia.

Qatar of the upper respiratory tract begins gradually, with the rise in body temperature to subfebrile values, a runny nose, a decrease in appetite, and a dry, excruciating cough. Older children complain of general weakness, malaise, chills, aches, headaches, dryness and choking in the throat. In subsequent days, body temperature often rises, reaching a maximum of 38-39 ° C on the 3-4th or even on the 5-6th day from the onset of the disease. At the height of clinical manifestations, paleness of the face, sometimes hyperemia of the conjunctiva, injection of vessels of the sclera are noted. Possible headache, dizziness, cognition, sleep disturbance, sweating, pain in the eyeballs, sometimes abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, some enlargement of the liver, lymphadenopathy. In general, the symptoms of intoxication in most patients at the height of the disease are little expressed and do not correspond to the long-lasting fever. There are changes in the oropharynx and respiratory tract. The mucous membrane is weakly or moderately hyperemic, on the back wall of the pharynx - the phenomenon of pharyngitis with increased pattern and increased follicles. Older children sometimes complain of sore throat, dryness and awkwardness when swallowing. Nasal breathing is usually difficult, there are symptoms of bronchitis. At the beginning of the disease cough is dry, from 4-5th day there is scant sputum. Sometimes symptoms of croup join. In the lungs they listen to hard breathing, unstable scattered dry wheezes.

On the roentgenogram in the lungs with greater consistency, one can see an increase in the bronchoconstriction pattern and the expansion of the roots, the phenomenon of moderate emphysema.

In peripheral blood a small leukocytosis, neutrophilia; ESR increased to 20-30 mm / h.

Mycoplasmal pneumonia is focal or lobar. Pneumonia can develop from the first days of the disease, but more often it appears on the 3-5th day of the disease. The body temperature rises to 39-40 ° C. However, the severity of fever does not always correspond to the severity of pneumonia, sometimes mycoplasmal pneumonia occurs at subfebrile or normal body temperature.

Leading clinical symptoms of mycoplasmal pneumonia: progressive changes in the lungs with relatively weak symptoms of intoxication. Symptoms of nasopharyngeal damage can be expressed in this case, but often with the development of pneumonia they weaken or even completely absent. Some patients have rhinitis, hyperemia of the mucous membrane of the oropharynx, pharyngitis. Sometimes pneumonia is accompanied by pleural lesions. Clinically, this is manifested by pain in the chest, increasing with breathing, sometimes you can listen to the noise of rubbing the pleura.

At the height of the lesion of the lungs, the general condition is usually disturbed moderately. In young children, intoxication manifests a general weakness, a decrease in appetite, a lack of weight gain.

In peripheral blood the tendency to moderate leukocytosis, a shift of the leukocyte formula to the left, lymphopenia, monocytopenia; ESR up to 30-40 mm / h.

Congenital mycoplasmal infection. Intrauterine infection with mycoplasmas can lead to spontaneous miscarriage or fetal death immediately after birth. In these cases, mycoplasma can be found in almost all organs of the stillborn. There are inflammatory changes in the lungs and other organs. Intrauterine mycoplasmosis is manifested by premature birth or low birth weight, pneumonia, pale skin with a gray or yellow hue, hemorrhagic syndrome, the appearance of meningoencephalitis in the middle-end of the first week of life. In premature babies, in addition, there may be a sclera, a cephalothorem.

[1], [2], [3], [4]