Drug Susceptibility Distributions of Mycobacterium chimaera and Other Nontuberculous Mycobacteria

Recent outbreaks of cardiac surgery-associated Mycobacterium chimaera infections have highlighted the importance of species differentiation within the Mycobacterium avium complex and pointed to a lack of antibiotic susceptibility data for M. chimaera . Using the MGIT 960/EpiCenter TB eXiST platform, we have determined antibiotic susceptibility patterns of 48 clinical M. chimaera isolates and 139 other nontuberculous mycobacteria, including 119 members of the M. avium complex and 20 Mycobacterium kansasii isolates toward clofazimine and other drugs used to treat infections with slow-growing nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM).