Pulmonary Disease Caused by Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria

Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) include more than 160 ubiquitous, environmental, acid-fast-staining bacterial species, some of which may cause disease in humans. Chronic pulmonary infection is the most common clinical manifestation. Although patients suffering from chronic lung diseases are particularly susceptible to NTM pulmonary disease, many affected patients have no apparent risk factors. Host and pathogen factors leading to NTM pulmonary disease are not well understood and preventive therapies are lacking. NTM isolation and pulmonary disease are reported to rise in frequency in Europe as well as in other parts of the world. Differentiation between contamination, infection, and disease remains challenging. Treatment of NTM pulmonary disease is arduous, lengthy, and costly. Correlations between results of in vitro antibiotic susceptibility testing and clinical treatment outcomes are only evident for the Mycobacterium avium complex, M. kansasii , and some rapidly growing mycobacteria. We describe the epidemiology of NTM pulmoReceived: January 22, 2016 Accepted after revision: March 31, 2016 Published online: May 21, 2016 Christoph Lange, MD Division of Clinical Infectious Diseases Research Center Borstel, Parkallee 35 DE–23845 Borstel (Germany) E-Mail clange @ fz-borstel.de © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel 0025–7931/16/0915–0386$39.50/0