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Clinical features of infection caused by non-tuberculous mycobacteria: 7 years’ experience

Infection volume 46, pages 357–363 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

Introduction

Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are ubiquitous organisms associated with various infections. The aim of the study was to determine the most relevant clinical characteristics of NTM during the 7-year period.

Methodology

A retrospective study of NTM infections was conducted between January 2009 and December 2016. The American Thoracic Society/Infectious Disease Society of America criteria were used to define cases of pulmonary or an extrapulmonary site.

Results

A total of 85 patients were included in the study. Pulmonary cases predominated 83/85 (98%), while extrapulmonary NTM were present in 2/95 (2%) patients. Overall, ten different NTM species were isolated. The most common organisms were slow-growing mycobacteria (SGM) presented in 70/85 (82.35%) patients. Isolated SGM strains were Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) in 25/85 (29.41%) patients, M. xenopi in 20/85 (23.53%) patients, M. kansasii in 15/85 (17.65%) patients and M. peregrinum and M. gordonae in 5/85 (5.88%) patients each. Isolated rapid-growing mycobacteria (RGM) strains were M. abscessus in 8/85 (9.41%) patients, M. fortuitum in 4/85 (4.71%) patients and M. chelonae in 3/85 (3.53%) patients. Almost all patients (98%; 83/85) had comorbidities. Among 75 (88.24%) patients who completed follow-up, 59 (69.41%), 10 (11.76%) and 6 (7%), were cured, experienced relapse and died, respectively.

Conclusion

In the present study, pulmonary NTM infections were more frequent compared to extrapulmonary disease forms. SGM were most common isolates with MAC pulmonary disease the most frequently found. Comorbidities have an important role in NTM occurrence. Further investigation should focus on an NTM drug susceptibility testing.

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Acknowledgements

The paper has been published with the non-financial support of the project of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of the Republic of Serbia (No III 45005).

Funding

The authors did not receive any funding for the study.

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Tatjana Adzic-Vukicevic, Aleksandra Barac & Vesna Skodric-Trifunovic

  2. Clinic for Pulmonology, Clinical Centre of Serbia, Dr Koste Todorovića 26, Belgrade, 11000, Serbia

    Tatjana Adzic-Vukicevic, Ana Blanka-Protic, Marija Laban-Lazovic & Vesna Skodric-Trifunovic

  3. Clinic for Infectious and Tropical Diseases, Clinical Centre of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia

    Aleksandra Barac

  4. Department for Microbiology, Clinical Centre of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia

    Bojana Lukovic

  5. Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy

    Salvatore Rubino

Authors
  1. Tatjana Adzic-Vukicevic
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  2. Aleksandra Barac
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  3. Ana Blanka-Protic
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  4. Marija Laban-Lazovic
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  5. Bojana Lukovic
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  6. Vesna Skodric-Trifunovic
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  7. Salvatore Rubino
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tatjana Adzic-Vukicevic.

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Ethical statement

The study was conducted in accordance with the rules of Good Clinical Practice (GPS), including International Conference on Harmonization guidelines, Directive 2001/20/EC of the European Parliament, and the most recent version of the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Adzic-Vukicevic, T., Barac, A., Blanka-Protic, A. et al. Clinical features of infection caused by non-tuberculous mycobacteria: 7 years’ experience. Infection 46, 357–363 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s15010-018-1128-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s15010-018-1128-2

Keywords

  • Non-tuberculous mycobacteria
  • Extrapulmonary
  • Pulmonary
  • Slow growing
  • Rapid growing