Correlation of prognostic values of IL-6 and PCT levels with the severity of pneumonia caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae in children

Objective: To explore the correlation of interleukin 6 (IL-6) and procalcitonin (PCT) with severity of Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP) in children and their prognostic value. Methods: One hundred twenty children with MPP and 100 healthy children who underwent physical examination at the Clinical Laboratory Department of Nantong University Maternal and Child Health Hospital from November 2023 to December 2023 were selected as the study subjects, and were divided into the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group was divided into mild MPP group (n=70 ) and severe MPP group (n=50 ) according to the severity of the disease. According to the condition after one course of treatment, separated MPP children into good prognosis group (n=96) and poor prognosis group (n=24). The IL-6 and PCT levels of the experimental/control group before treatment and the good/bad prognosis group after treatment were compared, respectively. The lung function of children with MPP before and after treatment was also examined, and the changes of respiratory rate (RR), tidal volume (VT), expiratory time (Te), peak time (TPTEF), and peak volume (VPTEF) were observed. The correlation between pulmonary function and IL-6, PCT in MPP children was analyzed by Pearson analysis. Receiver operation curve was adopted to analyze the predictive value of IL-6, PCT for poor prognosis. Results: IL-6 and PCT were increased in the severe MPP group compared to the mild MPP group (P<0.001) and tended to decrease in the good prognosis group compared to the poor prognosis group (P<0.001). Fifty-nine of the 70 cases in the good prognosis group were patients with mild MPP, suggesting that patients with mild MPP have a better prognosis. The results of respiratory function showed an increase in RR (P<0.001) and a decrease in VT (P=0.007), TPTEF/Te (P<0.001), VPTEF/VT (P<0.001) in the severe MPP group compared to the mild MPP group. The results of correlation analysis revealed that IL-6, PCT were negatively correlated with VT, TPTEF/Te and VPTEF/VT (P<0.001). ROC curve analysis revealed that IL-6 and PCT co-diagnosis had a better predictive ability for poor prognosis in children with MPP (AUC=0.843). Conclusion: IL-6 and PCT are positively related to the severity of MPP, the combined detection of IL-6 and PCT has certain clinical usefulness to evaluate and assess prognosis of MPP children. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.41.5.10448 How to cite this: Bao X, Wang Q, Geng H, Yuan X. Correlation of prognostic values of IL-6 and PCT levels with the severity of pneumonia caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae in children. Pak J Med Sci. 2025;41(5):1305-1310. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.41.5.10448 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.