Local epidemic of atypical pneumonia with unknown cause: A clinical anaª²lysis of 26 cases

    LIU Wenª²Cheng1, WANG Zongª²Ye2, ZHENG Chengª²Zhong3, MIAO Ning4, JING Hua5, LI Jie1, YANG Ge1, JIANG Yuª²Feng1, GU Ying1

    1Department of Outpatient, 2Department of Radiology, 3Departª²ment of Paediatrics, 4Department of Clinical Laboratory, 5Medical Department, PLA 306 Hospital, Beijing 100101, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To investigate the epidemiological characª²teristics and clinical manifestations of atypical pneumonia with unknown cause. METHODS: Clinical data were retrospectively analyzed in 26 cases of atypical pneumonia with unknown cause. RESULTS: A group of 26 patients (18 males and 8 females, average age: 22.5 years) were admitted in the hospital. The patients worked at the same institution and resided in the same building. The main symptom was fever, with less or no infectionª²toxic manifestations and respiratory symptoms. All the Xª²ray examinations showed multiple or solitary dotª²massive shadows with high or inconsistent density, and the edge of the shadows was not clear. Laboratory assays demonstrated that the number of leukocytes was decreased or normal, and monocytes were increased. All the antibodies to known pathogenies were negative. The patients were isolated during the treatment, in which 16 patients were treated with antibiotics and antiª²virus, 8 patients with antivirus only. The body temperature became normal in all the patients after 5ª²day treatment, without respiratory failure and death. CONCLUSION: The basic features of the patients are in accord with those of atypical pneumonia with high infectiosity. Respiratory spread is the main route of transmission. The disease occurs in an aggregated population with an incubation period of 0.5-6 d and with slight symptoms and a tendency of spontaneous cure. Pulmonary shadows appear quickly after onset of the disease. ......