Diagnosis and Treatment of Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Pulmonary Diseases

Eight years before the Robert Koch's identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium leprae, which is the firstly identified nontuberculous mycobactena (NTM), was reported by G.H. Armaucr Hansen in 1874. Thereafter a total of 71 species of Mycobacterium have been recognized or proposed. Despite the fact that NTM have been occasionally identified from clinical specimens, it is only recently that they draw a serious attention. In Korea, the frequency of isolation of NTM increased from 448 in 1992 to 1562 in 2002, while the prevalence of active tuberculosis over the same period decreased from 1.8% to 0.5%. The most commonly isolated NTM was M avium-intracellulare complex (MAC) throughout the period of 1992-2002 M abscessus was the second common, followed by M fortuitum, M gordonae and M kansasii. In this article, we will overview the NTM-related lung diseases in terms of their diagnosis, clinical characteristics, and treatment.