Insidious cardiac changes in patients with mycoplasma pneumoniae infections

Aim: To investigate the cardiac influence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae.
Materials: 23 mycoplasmal pneumonia patients (age range, 3 to 77 years) and 31 bacterial pneumonia patients (age range, 1 to 94 years).
Methods: Cardio-thoracic ratio (CTR) on chest radiographs on admission and one month after treatment. Results: In mycoplasmal pneumonia patients, the CTR on admission was 46.1±3.8% and the CTR after treatment was 42.9±3.8% (p< 0.0001). The CTR after treatment in the bacterial pneumonia patients did not change.
Conclusion: After treatment, a significant decrease in the CTR was observed in the mycoplasmal pneumonia patients. The pathogenesis of cardiovascular involvement associated with Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection has not been elucidated. However, this study showed that cardiac injury might occur without any subjective heart symptoms. Even if patients have no complaints, there may be cardiac involvement especially in the left ventricle in mycoplasmal pneumonia patients.