The antimicrobial susceptibility of non-tuberculous mycobacteria

Pulmonary non-tuberculous mycobacterial infection (NTM) is a challenging and increasingly prevalent infection. Antimicrobial resistance is common and may be associated with poor outcomes. This retrospective study aimed to report longitudinal trends in mycobacterial isolation and NTM drug susceptibility.

Mycobacterial culture and drug sensitivity testing results were obtained over a 13 year period. Drug sensitivity testing was performed by broth macrodilution for slow-growing mycobacteria and disc diffusion for rapidly growing mycobacteria.

Culture results were obtained from 109,311 samples (31,758 subjects) of which 5960 samples (1209 subjects) isolated NTM over 13 years. Drug susceptibility results were obtained for 2637 NTM isolates (898 subjects). NTM isolation increased over time, driven by the Mycobacterium avium complex and Mycobacterium abscessus. Amongst most species, resistance to the key agents clarithromycin and amikacin was rare. The highest rate of resistance was found in M. abscessus and Mycobacterium simiae. Most M. abscessus isolates were sensitive to macrolides, aminoglycosides and tigecycline; M. simiae isolates were only consistently sensitive to clofazimine, amikacin and cycloserine.

NTM isolation is increasingly common in our centre. Reassuringly, resistance to clarithromycin and amikacin is rare in most species. Tigecycline, cycloserine and clofazimine may be useful in the treatment of the most resistant species, M. abscessus and M. simiae.