Introduction Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are slow-growing organisms affecting both immunocompromised and immunocompetent patients. As compared to tuberculosis, they pose formidable challenge in successful management beginning with diagnosis extending through its treatment. Case Report Our case highlights unusual spinal presentation of NTM, intricacies in diagnosis, and successful manag...

The aims of this study were to evaluate the microbiological quality and the occurrence of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) in a variety of salads and sprouts from supermarkets and street vendors in Mexico City. Aerobic-mesophilic bacteria (AMB) were present in 100% of RTE-salads samples; 59% of samples were outside guidelines range (>5.17 log10 CFU per g). Although fecal coliforms (FC) were pr...

UNLABELLED Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) play an increasingly significant pathogenic role in HIV -positive patients, in patients with chronic lung disease, in other chronic conditions and in the elderly. AIMS Evaluate the importance of NTM isolation in respiratory samples in patients without HIV-infection. METHODS Retrospective evaluation of our hospital patients with no known AIDS, wit...

BACKGROUND Nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infection in immunocompromized patients is currently a growing health concern, and we aimed to examine the relative risk of NTM infection in patients with Sjögren's syndrome (SS) compared with that in non-SS individuals. METHODS We used the 2003-2012 Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database to identify 6554 incident SS cases during 20...

Objective The incidence of pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections has increased in recent decades. Nevertheless, NTM pleurisy is still a rare disease. The objective of the present study was to elucidate the clinical features and outcomes of NTM pleurisy. Methods A retrospective study was undertaken of consecutive patients whose pleural effusion culture yielded NTM, from 2002 to...

SETTING The value of microbiological criteria in diagnosing non-tuberculous mycobacteria pulmonary disease (NTM-PD) and monitoring its epidemiology is unknown. OBJECTIVES To correlate the rate of NTM-PD based on microbiological criteria (American Thoracic Society/Infectious Diseases Society of America [ATS/IDSA] or stricter microbiological criteria) compared with the full ATS/IDSA criteria, t...

Pulmonary infections with nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are recognized as a problem in immunodeficient individuals and are increasingly common in older people with no known immune defects. NTM are found in soil and water, but factors influencing transmission from the environment to humans are mostly unknown. Studies of the epidemiology of NTM disease have matched some clinical isolates of N...

To assess whether there is any difference in postoperative morbidity and mortality after pneumonectomy between patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and patients with non-tuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections. Between January 2000 and December 2007, 61 patients with MDR-TB and 60 patients with NTM infections underwent 66 and 64 pulmonary resections, respectively. Of these...

The clinical relevance of non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) has been reported to be different dramatically by species or by regions, however, no such evaluation has been performed in China.A retrospective study was performed in Beijing Chest Hospital. All the NTM strains isolated from respiratory specimens in the past 5 years, and patients' clinical records (symptoms and radiographic informati...

NTM are bacteria with a lipid-rich, impermeable outer membrane that results in slow growth, antibiotic-resistance, disinfectant-resistance (e.g., chlorine), acid-tolerance, and propensity to stick to pipe surfaces. The lipid-rich outer membrane is the major determinant of their ecology as: (1) NTM grow slowly because they use a great deal of energy to make the long chain fatty acids in the oute...