Mycoplasma pneumoniae Pneumonia: Symptoms Mimicking Pulmonary Embolism With Infarction

• Published in: JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association Vol. 241; no. 12; pp. 1268 - 1269
• Main Authors: Simmons, Bryan P, Aber, Robert C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Medical Association 23-03-1979
• Subjects: Antibodies, Bacterial - analysis; Diagnosis, Differential; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Mycoplasma - immunology; Mycoplasma - isolation & purification; Mycoplasma Infections - diagnosis; Pneumonia - diagnosis; Pneumonia - etiology; Pneumonia - microbiology; Pulmonary Embolism - diagnosis
• ISSN: 0098-7484; 1538-3598
• DOI: 10.1001/jama.1979.03290380044027

PNEUMONIA and pulmonary embolism may present clinically in a similar fashion.1 Hemoptysis, dyspnea, tachypnea, pleuritic chest pain, hypoxemia, respiratory alkalosis, and fever are features commonly seen in both diseases. Usually a careful history in combination with a chest roentgenogram and other clinical findings, including purulent sputum production, will allow differentiation.Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections in adults may have a variety of clinical presentations, including pneumonia.2 Despite these protean manifestations, pleuritic chest pain and hemoptysis are distinctly unusual in M pneumoniae pneumonia.2,3 A patient was believed to have had mycoplasmal pneumonia that closely mimicked the syndrome produced by pulmonary embolismReport of a CaseA 58-year-old man was transferred to Hershey Medical Center, complaining of hemoptysis and pleuritic chest pain. He had been in good health until two weeks before his transfer, when he began having shaking chills, fevers, and sweats. He was admitted to another hospital three days later,