Efficacy analysis of doxycycline in the treatment of Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Pneumonia in children under 8 years old

Corresponding author: zheng jishan, zjs22@163.com

DOI: 10.12201/bmr.202509.00001

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  Abstract: OBJECTIVETo explore the efficacy of doxycycline in the treatment of Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia in children under 8 years old, and preliminarily analyze its safety, so as to provide a basis for rational clinical drug use.METHODSThe clinical data of 258 children under 8 years old with Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia admitted to the Department of Pediatrics, Northern Branch of Womens and Childrens Hospital of Ningbo University from July 2023 to June 2024 were collected. According to whether doxycycline was used, they were divided into the azithromycin group (n=156) and the doxycycline group (n=102). The clinical indexes, inflammation - related indexes, liver function indexes and adverse reactions of the two groups of children before and after treatment were compared.RESULTSAfter treatment, the defervescence time, cough relief time, pneumonia image absorption time and hospital stay in the doxycycline group were shorter than those in the azithromycin group(P＜0.05). The number of patients who needed to use steroids and bronchoscope intervention, and the number of patients with total hospitalization costs more than 10,000 yuan were less than those in the azithromycin group(P＜0.05). The C-reactive protein (CRP), D-dimer (DD), serum ferritin (SF) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in both groups decreased compared with those before treatment, and the reduction in the doxycycline group was greater than that in the azithromycin group(P＜0.05). There were no significant changes in alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and prealbumin (PA) before and after treatment in both groups(P＞0.05). The main adverse reactions in both groups were gastrointestinal reactions, and there was no significant difference in the incidence rate(P=0.204).CONCLUSIONSDoxycycline can effectively relieve the clinical symptoms, reduce the inflammatory response, decrease the probability of steroids and bronchoscope intervention, shorten the hospital stay and reduce the hospitalization costs in the treatment of Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia in children under 8 years old. There are no serious adverse reactions were observed within the regular treatment dose and course, and the safety is good.

  Key words: doxycycline; Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia; off-label drug use; clinical efficacy

  Submit time: 1 September 2025

  Copyright: The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted biomedRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.
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