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Updated: Mar 18, 2026

A Tuberculosis Molecular Bacterial Load Assay TB-MBLA
Published on: April 30, 2020
Nontuberculous mycobacteria among pulmonary tuberculosis patients: a retrospective Belgian multicenter study
Steven De Keukeleire1, Vanessa Mathys2, Sigi Van den Wijngaert3
1a Department of Microbiology and Infection Control , University Hospital Brussel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) , Brussels , Belgium.
Objectives:
Currently, there are no European data about the frequency and clinical significance of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) grown from respiratory samples during the treatment of tuberculosis (TB). We determined the frequency and clinical significance of NTM isolated before or during pulmonary tuberculosis treatment in Belgian laboratories.
Methods:
We conducted a nationwide retrospective multicenter cohort study on the co-isolation of TB and NTM in Belgium. Starting from laboratory data between 2006 and 2013, possible TB-NTM co-isolations were searched for.
Results:
A total of 2569 unique culture-positive pulmonary tuberculosis cases were included in the study. Only 35 (1.4%) of these TB cases had an NTM co-isolated, and two of these 35 fulfilled the ATS criteria for NTM lung disease.
Conclusion:
A very low prevalence of 1.4% NTM co-isolations was found in Belgian patients with culture-proven pulmonary TB.
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