Preliminary investigations on the diagnostic value of passive hemagglutination and complement fixation tests in infections with Mycoplasma pneumoniae.

In order to evaluate the efficiency of passive hemagglutination (PHA) and complement fixation (CF) tests for the diagnosis of M. pneumoniae infections, 144 serum samples--out of which 81 from patients with respiratory and cutaneous infections and 63 from subjects with other diseases (controls)--were comparatively investigated by the two methods. The PHA test made evident a positivity index of 65% in the case of mixed pneumonias, as against 17% in controls, while the results obtained by CF were almost identical in the two groups investigated. The high specificity and sensitivity of the PHA reaction recommend this method for the diagnosis of acute M. pneumoniae infections.