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Mycoplasma pneumoniae is known to cause encephalitis, but whether the pathogen is neuroinvasive, causes an immunologic reaction against the central nervous system, or both remains unresolved. Now, researchers report on unexplained cases of encephalitis that were referred to the California Encephalitis Project for diagnostic testing from June 1998 through July 2006. For all cases, serum, respiratory, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens were tested for at least 14 pathogens.
M. pneumoniae, the most commonly identified pathogen, accounted for 111 of 1988 cases (6%); 84 such cases (76%) were in patients aged ≤18 years. Seventy-seven of these pediatric cases were diagnosed by a positive anti-mycoplasma IgM in acute or convalescent serum (59 b…