Can a Spurious Blood Result give a Clue to the Aetiological Diagnosis of Pneumonia? A Case Report

Abstract

Extra pulmonary manifestations of Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia include hematologic, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, dermatologic, and neurologic complications. We report a case of serologically confirmed M. pneumoniae infection in a patient who presented with breathlessness and in whom the diagnosis was suspected because of evidence of hemolysis and some spurious values in the haemogram which were reported by the coulter counter haemogram machines due to the presence of cold agglutinins in the blood.