Premium
Non‐tuberculous mycobacterial infection among lung transplant recipients: a 15‐year cohort study
Author(s) -
Knoll B.M.,
Kappagoda S.,
Gill R.R.,
Goldberg H.J.,
Boyle K.,
Baden L.R.,
Fuhlbrigge A.L.,
Marty F.M.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
transplant infectious disease
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.69
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1399-3062
pISSN - 1398-2273
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-3062.2012.00753.x
Subject(s) - medicine , lung transplantation , incidence (geometry) , nontuberculous mycobacteria , tuberculosis , confidence interval , transplantation , surgery , pathology , mycobacterium , physics , optics
Background The incidence of infection with non‐tuberculous mycobacteria ( NTM ) after lung transplant is insufficiently defined. Data on the impact of NTM infection on lung transplant survival are conflicting. Methods To quantify the incidence and outcomes of colonization and disease with NTM in patients after lung transplantation, the medical records, chest imaging, and microbiology data of 237 consecutive lung transplant recipients between 1990 and 2005 were reviewed. A merican T horacic S ociety (ATS)/ I nfectious D iseases S ociety of A merica and C enters for D isease C ontrol criteria were used to define pulmonary NTM disease and NTM surgical‐site infections ( SSI ), respectively. Incidence rates for NTM colonization and disease were calculated. Comparisons of median survival were done using the log‐rank test. Results NTM were isolated from 53 of 237 patients (22.4%) after lung transplantation over a median of 25.2 months of follow‐up. The incidence rate of NTM isolation was 9.0/100 person‐years (95% confidence interval [ CI ), 6.8–11.8), and the incidence rate of NTM disease was 1.1/100 person‐years (95% CI 0.49–2.2). The most common NTM isolated was M ycobacterium avium complex (69.8%), followed by M ycobacterium abscessus (9.4%), and M ycobacterium gordonae (7.5%). Among these 53 patients, only 2 patients met ATS criteria for pulmonary disease and received treatment for M . avium . One patient had recurrent colonization after treatment, the other one was cured. Four of the 53 patients developed SSI , 3 caused by M . abscessus and 1 caused by M ycobacterium chelonae . Three of these patients had persistent infection requiring chronic suppressive therapy and one died from progressive disseminated disease. A total of 47 (89%) patients who met microbiologic but not radiographic criteria for pulmonary infection were not treated and were found to have only transient colonization. Median survival after transplantation was not different between patients with transient colonization who did not receive treatment and those who never had NTM isolated. Conclusion Episodic isolation of NTM from lung transplant recipients is common. Most isolates occur among asymptomatic patients and are transient. Rapidly growing NTM can cause significant SSI , which may be difficult to cure. NTM disease rate is higher among lung transplant recipients than in the general population. In this cohort, NTM isolation was not associated with increased post‐transplantation mortality.