Abstract
Objective: To analyze the clinical characterisitcs of patients who diagnosed pulmonary Mycobacterium complex (MAC) disease recently in the affiliated several hospitals.
Patients and methods: The subjects consisted of 150 patients who satisfied the diagnostic criteris of ATS between 2003 and 2010. We evaluated the backgrounds, diagnostic methods, microbiological findings, radiological findings, treatments, and prognosis.
Results: The average age of 150 patients with pulmonary MAC disease was 65.0 years old. The detection method was most frequently recognized by bronchoscopy (50%). The microbiological findings was smear positive for acid-fast bacilli in 98 patients (65%) and the sensitivity of isolated MAC for antituberculous drugs and otherantibiotics was comparatively good for clarithromycin (CAM) and rifampicin (RFP). The clinical disease type of pulmonary MAC disease consisited of nodular/ bronchiectatic type in 101 patients (67%), fibrocavitary type in 43 (29%) and solitary nodular type in 6 (4%), respectively. Concerning the treatment for pulmonary MAC disease, the combined chemotherapy including CAM was performed for 76 patients (51%). Sputum conversion rate was 76%, the sputum relapse rate was 31% and the clinical improvement including radiological findings and/or clinical symptoms was ontained in 49%.
Conclusions: We positively perform the bronchoscopic examination to obtain the diagnosis of pulmonary MAC disease. The diagnosticrate of pulmonary MAC disease has recently increased with the revise of diagnostic criteria reported in 2007 and we could obtain comparatively good clinical effect by the positive performence of combination chemotherapy including the increase dose of CAM.
- © 2012 ERS