Guidelines have been produced for tuberculosis by the British Thoracic Society (BTS), 2 the American Thoracic Society (ATS), the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, and the World Health Organisation. These, however, deal mainly with Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex infections (M tuberculosis, M africanum, and M bovis). With the exception of the ATS guidelines on non-tub...

Tuberculous meningitis and meningoencephalitis are rare and dangerous complications of infections with mycobacteria-complex. Usually these are complications of systemic florid infection with Mycobacterium (M.) tuberculosis. They are most often seen in immune compromised patients. The confirmation of diagnosis can be elaborate and delayed due to long-term culture requirements for M. tuberculosis...

The membership list of genus mycobacterium is ever expanding and it has grown to 95 in year 2003. While leprosy and tuberculosis are specific diseases caused by mycobacteria, other members are usually saprophytes but can be opportunistic and at times deadly pathogens. These other mycobacteria are referred to as atypical mycobacteria, non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) or mycobacteria other than...

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 factor...

Lymphadenitis is the most common extrapulmonary manifestation of tuberculosis. Tuberculous lymphadenitis is considered to be the local manifestation of the systemic disease, whereas lymphadenitis due to nontuberculous mycobacteria is truly a localized disease. A high index of suspicion is needed for the diagnosis of tuberculous lymphadenitis which is known to mimic a number of pathological cond...

To ascertain the cause of tuberculous-like lesions in pigs slaughtered in a local abattoir in Ibadan (south-western Nigeria), a total of 516 pigs were inspected over a period of four months, 18 of which had gross lesions suggestive of tuberculosis at post-mortem. Mycobacterial culture and molecular typing (GenoType Mycobacterium CM [Common Mycobacteria] assay) analysis were used to identify and...

Neutrophils are typically the first responders in host defense against invading pathogens, which they destroy by both oxidative and nonoxidative mechanisms. However, despite a longstanding recognition of neutrophil presence at disease sites in tuberculosis, their role in defense against mycobacteria is unclear. Here we exploit the genetic tractability and optical transparency of zebrafish to mo...

Tuberculosis (TB) is a dangerous infectious disease characterized by a tight interplay between mycobacteria and host cells in granulomatous lesions (granulomas) during the latent, asymptomatic stage of infection. Mycobacterium-host cell relationships were analyzed in granulomas obtained from various organs of BALB/c mice with chronic TB infection caused by in vivo exposure to the Bacillus Calme...

Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are being recognized increasingly as the causative agents of opportunistic infections in humans. This study investigated the epidemiologic trends of NTM recovery from various clinical specimens in 2 Korean tertiary-care hospitals. We reviewed the laboratory records of patient samples cultured for mycobacteria between 2009 and 2015 at 2 tertiary-care hospitals ...