Mingyi Xu ^1,2 Minhao Fan ^2* Huixia Wang ³ Jun Qian ^2* Yi Jiang ^2* Yifan Zhu ⁴ Deyu Zhao ⁴ Feng Liu ⁴ Yun Guo ^2* Ling Li ^1,2*

• ¹ The Affiliated Wuxi People's Hospital, Wuxi Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, Liaoning Province, China
• ² Affiliated Children's Hospital of Jiangnan University (Wuxi Children's Hospital), Wuxi, Liaoning Province, China
• ³ Pediatric Respiratory Medicine of Zhumadian Central Hospital, Henan, China
• ⁴ Department of Respiratory Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China

Background: Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP) is a common disease of childhood pneumonia, and atelectasis is a serious comorbidity. Traditional diagnostic methods for MPP are limited by low accuracy, emphasizing the need for improved diagnostic approaches. This study aimed to establish a predictive scoring model for early detection of MPP complicated with atelectasis following standardized treatment. Methods: A total of 572 children were retrospectively enrolled, including 40 patients with MPP complicated by atelectasis despite standardized treatment and 532 patients in the non-atelectasis group. Clinical, laboratory, and imaging data within 24 hours of admission were collected, including demographic information and various biomarkers. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed to identify risk factors and construct a predictive model, evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results: Significant differences were observed between the MPP complicated with atelectasis group and the non-atelectasis group in terms of age, hospital admission time, fever duration, neutrophil percentage and count, CRP, ALT, and LDH levels (P<0.05). According to the multivariate logistic regression analysis, length of fever, neutrophil ratio, platelet count, ALT, LDH, age were incorporated into the nomogram. The predictive model exhibited a sensitivity of 87.97% and specificity of 77.50% according to the ROC curve. Conclusion: Our study presents a preliminary risk association model incorporating clinical indicators such as fever duration, neutrophil ratio, platelet count, ALT value, LDH value, and age to aid in the early prediction of atelectasis in children with MPP. Given the methodological limitations, the generalizability of our findings is constrained, and this model should be viewed as an initial framework for clinical assessment rather than a definitive tool.