Oneliner_1886

OneLiner

Nonproductive cough, fever, headache, and malaise, plus late inspiratory crackles. Chest x-ray shows bilateral diffuse patchy interstitial infiltrate» suggestive of atypical pneumonia. The infectious agent most likely responsible is Mycoplasma pneumoniae. M. pneumoniae organisms do not have cell walls, and their cell membranes contain cholesterol. Therefore culture of M. pneumoniae requires a cholesterol-rich medium for maintaining and building outer membranes, and M. pneumoniae will not appear on Gram staining. Differentiating viral atypical pneumonia from M. pneumoniae can be done through detection of an elevated cold agglutinin titer in the serum.