Photo Credit: Dr Microbe
The following is a summary of “Nontuberculous mycobacteria testing and culture positivity in the United States,” published in the March 2024 issue of Infectious Diseases by Marshall et al.
There’s been a global and US-specific rise in nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) pulmonary infection and disease, with mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) species and Mycobacterium abscessus being predominant.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to utilize raw data from Labcorp, shared with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), to understand NTM testing patterns, positivity rates, and species distributions. This aims to track infection trends better and identify clinical care needs related to NTM lung infections.
They analyzed National Labcorp data (January 2019 – April 2022) to focus on respiratory samples sent for Acid Fast Bacilli (AFB) cultures. NTM-positive results were identified by NTM species, excluding Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium bovis, and Mycobacterium gordonae.
The results tested 112,528 respiratory samples for AFB, where culture-positive prevalence varied across regions. From 20.2% in the Southeast to 9.2% in the East-North-Central region. M. abscessus prevalence in the Southeast was 4.0%, while MAC prevalence was highest in the Mountain region (13.5%) and lowest in the East South Central region (7.3%). Proportions of MAC-positive tests ranged from 61.8% to 88.9%, with the highest in the Northeast U.S. M. abscessus-positive samples ranged from 3.8% to 19.7%, with the highest proportion in the Southeast region.
Investigators concluded that the Southeast U.S. has the highest NTM culture positivity and M. abscessus. However, estimating infections may be limited due to testing constraints. Analyzing commercial lab data may reveal NTM risk factors.
Source: bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-024-09059-9