The X ray pneumonia is patchy and more than expected. These changes can last as long as 4 months. The white blood cell count, usually a reliable indicator of bacterial disease, is not raised. Not all hospital labs can do diagnostic tests, but a positive cold agglutinin test and high sedimentation rate will establish the likelihood during an epidemic and lead to appropriate treatment because several conditions confused with mycoplasmal pneumonia are susceptible to the same antibiotics. The disease responds to erythromycin or tetracycline and similar drugs.
Most patients recover completely.
Complications are less than one in a thousand cases but one of my fellow residents at Barnes Hospital, in St. Louis, had a life threatening cold agglutinin anemia. If the diagnosis is uncertain erythromycin should be given. All rights reserved.