ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Pulmonology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1565773
Risk analysis of poor prognosis and follow-up observation of children with Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia complicated by plastic bronchitis
Provisionally accepted
- The First Hospital of Putian City, Putian, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Studies on the risk factors for poor prognosis in pediatric plastic bronchitis (PB) and medium- to long-term follow-up are relatively limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the risk factors for poor prognosis of Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP) complicated by PB prognosis in children and conduct a detailed follow-up study.Methods: This was a retrospective study of children diagnosed with MPP complicated by PB at the First Hospital of Putian City from January 2022 to June 2024. Clinical data during hospitalization and after discharge were collected. Patients were assigned to the good prognosis group if both pulmonary imaging and pulmonary function tests one month after discharge were normal or the poor prognosis group if one or both tests were abnormal.Clinical manifestations and laboratory findings were compared between the two groups.Results: This study included 62 pediatric patients, with a median age of 8.1 years, of which 35 were male. The poor prognosis group comprised 40 patients (64.5%), and male children accounted for 57.5% (23/40) of this group. Logistic regression analysis indicated that longer fever duration (OR = 2.871) and higher D-dimer level (OR = 1.770) were independent risk factors for poor prognosis in children with PB. ROC curve analysis further revealed that a fever duration of 10.55 days (AUC = 0.852) and a D–dimer level of 5.61 µg/mL (AUC = 0.806) provided optimal prediction of poor prognosis.All patients presented with abnormal pulmonary imaging findings at admission, and 43 (69.4%) had abnormal pulmonary function on the day of discharge; follow-up revealed that 33 patients (53.2%) had abnormal pulmonary imaging findings, and 28 patients (45.2%) had abnormal pulmonary function one month after discharge. Six months after discharge, 13 patients (21.0%) continued to exhibit either pulmonary lesions or impaired pulmonary function.Conclusion: A fever duration longer than 10.55 days and a D-dimer level higher than 5.61 µg/mL were independent risk factors for poor prognosis in children with MPP complicated by PB. Children with PB caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae may experience long-term sequelae, necessitating close follow-up and personalized rehabilitation treatment.
Keywords: Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia, Plastic bronchitis, Poor prognosis, Risk factors, follow-up, Pulmonary Function, d-dimer
Received: 23 Jan 2025; Accepted: 16 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zheng, Zheng, Hu, Huang and Han. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Chun-Lin Zheng, The First Hospital of Putian City, Putian, China
Yi-Min Han, The First Hospital of Putian City, Putian, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.