Severe meningoencephalitis: complicating Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection in a child.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) infections are infrequently associated with CNS disease. We studied one case of meningoencephalitis associated with serologic evidence of MP infection. The pathogen grew neither from culture of CSF nor from culture of brain tissue. Electron-microscopic examination of the brain biopsy specimen revealed no organisms. Except for a single case in the literature, MP has never been recovered from the CNS, suggesting that MP-associated CNS disease is not caused by direct invasion of the CNS by MP.