ABSTRACT
Current recommendations and recent advances for the diagnosis and treatment of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) lung disease are summarized in Chapter 16. NTM are emerging worldwide as significant causes of chronic pulmonary infections, creating a number of challenges for both clinicians and researchers. NTM can be a serious chronic lung disease that can make patients very ill, damaging their lungs. The bacteria commonly implicated worldwide in NTM lung infection is usually slow growing (Mycobacterium avium complex, and Mycobacterium abscessus). The diagnosis of NTM lung disease is complicated; patients suspected of having NTM lung disease are required to meet all clinical and microbiologic criteria. A diagnosis of NTM pulmonary disease does not necessarily imply that treatment is required. However, when treatment is required, multidrug therapy based on appropriate susceptibility testing for the species in question should be used. New diagnostic and therapeutic modalities are needed to optimize the management of these complicated infections.
