MYCOPLASMA-HOMINIS AND UREAPLASMA-UREALYTICUM IN NEONATES WITH SUSPECTED INFECTION

The role of genital mycoplasmas in the pathogenesis of neonatal infect ion is incompletely understood. We performed nasopharyngeal, blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cultures for Mycoplasma hominis and Ureapla sma urealyticum in 69 neonates who underwent a diagnostic workup for s uspected sepsis. The mean gestational age was 35.9 weeks (range, 25 to 42 weeks) with a mean birth weight of 2386 g (range, 652 to 4420 g). Twenty-seven infants (39.1%) had positive nasopharyngeal cultures; 6 w ere positive for M. hominis, 10 for U. urealyticum and 11 for both org anisms. Seven (26%) of these 27 patients developed chronic lung diseas e compared with 2 (4.7%) infants in the non-colonized group. Nine infa nts had positive CSF cultures for M. hominis and one infant had a posi tive CSF culture for U. urealyticum. All blood cultures were sterile. One of the infants with a positive CSF culture for M. hominis had clin ical evidence of systemic infection. All of the infants were treated w ith antibiotic agents that were not active against mycoplasmas. These data indicate that genital mycoplasmas can be found commonly in the CS F and nasopharynx of infants with suspected sepsis. Their etiologic ro le in the causation of infection and chronic lung disease, however, re mains unclear.