Seroprevalence of community-acquired atypical bacterial pneumonia among adult COVID-19 patients from a single center in Al Madinah Al Munawarah, Saudi Arabia: A retrospective cohort study.
Saudi Med J 2022;
43:1000-1006. [PMID:
36104051 PMCID:
PMC9987659 DOI:
10.15537/smj.2022.43.9.20220379]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2022] [Accepted: 08/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES
To investigate the seroprevalence of the community-acquired bacterial that causes atypical pneumonia among confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) patients.
METHODS
In this cohort study, we retrospectively investigated the seroprevalence of Chlamydia pneumoniae, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and Legionella pneumophila among randomly selected 189 confirmed COVID-19 patients at their time of hospital presentation via commercial immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies against these bacteria. We also carried out quantitative measurements of procalcitonin in patients' serum.
RESULTS
The seropositivity for L. pneumophila was 12.6%, with significant distribution among patientsolder than 50 years (χ2 test, p=0.009), while those of M. pneumoniae was 6.3% and C. pneumoniae was 2.1%, indicating an overall co-infection rate of 21% among COVID-19 patients. No significant difference (χ2 test, p=0.628) in the distribution of bacterial co-infections existed between male and female patients. Procalcitonin positivity was confirmed amongst 5% of co-infected patients.
CONCLUSION
Our study documented the seroprevalence of community-acquired bacteria co-infection among COVID-19 patients. In this study, procalcitonin was an inconclusive biomarker for non-severe bacterial co-infections among COVID-19 patients. Consideration and proper detection of community-acquired bacterial co-infection may minimize misdiagnosis during the current pandemic and positively reflect disease management and prognosis.
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