MICs of isoniazid, rifampin, ethionamide, streptomycin, amikacin, kanamycin, and capreomycin were determined for Mycobacterium avium complex strains by two methods: broth dilution in 7H12 medium radiometrically and agar dilution on 7H10 agar plates. The broth-determined MICs of all drugs with the exception of isoniazid were two to eight times lower than the agar-determined MICs for most of the ...

Mycobacterium avium causes disseminated infection in patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a pathogen associated with the deaths of millions of people worldwide annually. Effective therapeutic regimens exist that are limited by the emergence of drug resistance and the inability of antibiotics to kill dormant organisms. The present study describes a sys...

Sera from patients with disease caused by the Mycobacterium avium complex (M. avium and M. intracellulare), M. kansasii, or M. tuberculosis and from subjects who did not have a mycobacterial disease were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay against peptidoglycolipid antigens representing each of the 15 most common serovars of the M. avium complex and against crude protein antigen extract...

We previously isolated and sequenced two genomic segments of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, namely, f57, a species-specific sequence, and the p34 gene, coding for a 34-kDa antigenic protein. Comparison of sequences upstream of the p34 open reading frame (us-p34) from M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis and M. tuberculosis showed a 79-base deletion in M. tuberculosis. Sequence analysi...

From 1991 to 1996, 541 blood samples were tested for the presence of mycobacteria; 56 were positive (30 patients, 26 human immunodeficiency virus positive). The species found were Mycobacterium avium (41 samples from 18 patients), Mycobacterium tuberculosis (12 samples from 9 patients), and three other species (1 sample each). The average time to detection was 25.23 days (22.65 for M. avium and...

BACKGROUND Most environmental non-tuberculous mycobacteria have been demonstrated to invade amoebal trophozoites and cysts, but such relationships are largely unknown for members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. An environmental source has been proposed for the animal Mycobacterium bovis and the human Mycobacterium canettii. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Using optic and electron mi...

The direct repeat (DR) region is a singular locus of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex genome. This region consists of 36 bp repetitive sequences separated by non-repetitive unique spacer sequences. Around this region there are several genes coding for proteins of unknown function. To determine whether the M. smegmatis, M. avium, M. marinum and M. leprae genomes contain sequences and ORFs ...

The use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for the treatment of HIV infection has been associated with a marked reduction in the incidence of most opportunistic infections. From April 2001 to February 2002, 80 blood samples from patients who were suspected to have disseminated mycobacterial infection, presenting fever and (preferably) a CD4 T cell count < 100.0 cell/mL were investi...

A retrospective observational study was performed to determine the sensitivity and limitation of PCR test for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. avium complex. We obtained clinical specimens collected from the respiratory tract, cultured M. tuberculosis or M. avium complex, and performed PCR analysis. A total of 299 samples (M. tuberculosis, 177; M. avium, 35; M. intracellulare,...

The FASTPlaqueTB assay is an established diagnostic aid for the rapid detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from human sputum samples. Using the FASTPlaqueTB assay reagents, viable Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis cells were detected as phage plaques in just 24 h. The bacteriophage used does not infect M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis alone, so to add specificity to this assay, a P...