[Nontuberculous mycobacteriosis (NTM) in Japan--epidemiologic and clinical study]

The epidemiologic study for NTM was conducted among 211 national, provincial and private sanatoriums in Japan. The case cards of patients with NTM disease from 97 hospitals were collected by questionary method. The total number of NTM patients newly admitted in these hospitals were 2,873 in 7 years from 1985 to 1991, and the culture positive tuberculosis patients were 22,836 cases in the same period. The number of NTM patients with Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) and with Mycobacterium kansasii were 1,675 and 240 respectively. The NTM patients were increasing year by year and the prevalence rate was estimated at 2.45 per 10(5) population in 1991, while on the other hand the rate of tuberculosis announced officially by the Ministry of Public Welfare was 15.0 in 1991 (rates were almost the same in these 7 years). The almost 3,000 patients were supposed to be affected by NTM in 1991, and one out of 7 patients infected by acid fast bacilli may be NTM case. The 3 out of 4 NTM patients are MAC cases and another one is M. kansasii case. In MAC cases M. avium are predominant in the northern half (from Kinki to Hokkaido) and M. intracellulare are predominant in the southern half (from Tyugoku to Kyushu) of Japan. For MAC cases, the number of patients were almost the same in male and female, the average age was 66 and 67 years respectively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)