Korean J Clin Microbiol.  2008 Apr;11(1):34-42. 10.5145/KJCM.2008.11.1.34.

Distribution and Clinical Significance of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria Identified by High Performance Liquid Chromatography in Clinical Specimens

• Jeong J
• Kim SR
• Chang CL
• Lee SH

• KMID: 2089806
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5145/KJCM.2008.11.1.34

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Infections caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are significantly increasing over the last decade. Due to the uncertainty in the clinical significance of these organisms, their effective diagnosis and treatment has been challenging. The purpose of this study was to investigate the distribution and clinical significance of NTM in clinical specimens.
METHODS
Acid-fast culture positive 3,107 clinical specimens were identified by mycolic acid analysis using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC.) The HPLC patterns of 384 NTM strains were compared with those of standard mycobacterium species. Clinical significance of NTM was investigated by a retrospective study including acid-fast stain and culture, medical history, symptoms and signs, radiological and other laboratory findings, pathologic findings, response to treatment, and follow-up study, and was confirmed according to the guideline of American Thoracic Society.
RESULTS
Among the 3,107 Mycobacterium-positive specimens, 384 (12.4%) were found to be positive for NTM. Of these, 367 (95.6%) were successfully identified by HPLC as 19 different species, each of which comprising 0.3% to 15.9% of the total NTM, Studies on the pathogenic role of NTM showed that 0~79.6% of each species or 0~100% of isolates from each specimen could be considered clinically significant.
CONCLUSION
HPLC method is highly discriminative for the identification of NTM in clinical specimens. When NTM is isolated from clinical specimens in the Ulsan area, the findings from this study could serve as a database on which to determine its clinical significance depending on species type and also specimen type.

Keyword

Mycobacterium; Nontuberculous mycobacteria; HPLC; Mycobacterial identification; Pathogenic rate

MeSH Terms

Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid
Chromatography, Liquid
Follow-Up Studies
Mycobacterium
Mycolic Acids
Nontuberculous Mycobacteria
Retrospective Studies
Uncertainty
Mycolic Acids