Pathogen nucleic acid detection from throat swabs in children with acute respiratory tract infections and its influ-encing factors

PAN Wan-ting; LU Pan; CHEN Guang-dao; TANG Yuan-ping; LI Zeng-qing

doi:10.13820/j.cnki.gdyx.20250379

Abstract：Objective To investigate the distribution of pathogens in children with acute respiratory tract infec-tions(ARTIs)and analyze associated influencing factors.Methods A total of 3,068 pediatric patients with ARTIs hos-pitalized or treated as outpatients in the Department of Pediatrics of Guangdong Women and Children Hospital from Sep-tember 2022 to June 2024 were enrolled.Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected,and nucleic acid testing for 18 pathogens was performed using multiplex-target amplification and liquid-phase chip technology.The relationships between patho-gen positivity rates and sex,age,infection site,and month were analyzed.Results Pathogens were detected in 2 648 ca-ses(86.3％).Human rhinovirus(HRV)was the most frequently detected virus(21.0％),Haemophilus influenzae(Hi)was the most frequently detected bacterium(19.2％),and Mycoplasma pneumoniae(MP)had a positivity rate of 13.0％.The positivity rates differed significantly among the 18 pathogens(P＜0.05).hMPV and CMV were significantly more common in boys than in girls(P＜0.05).With increasing age,the overall negative rate and the positivity rates for INF-A,INF-B,EBV,Bordetella pertussis(BP),and MP increased significantly,while the positivity rates for mixed infections,RSV,CMV,hBoV,and Streptococcus pneumoniae(SP)decreased significantly(P＜0.05).As infections progressed from the upper to lower respiratory tract,INF-B,adenovirus(ADV),and novel coronavirus(nCoV)detec-tion rates decreased significantly,while RSV and MP increased(P＜0.05).Monthly variations in the positivity rates of all pathogens were statistically significant(P＜0.05).Conclusion The positivity rates of respiratory pathogens in chil-dren with ARTIs are associated with sex,age,anatomical infection site,and seasonal distribution.