Investigating the Origin of Mycobacterium chimaera Contamination in Heater-Cooler Units: Integrated Analysis with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Whole-Genome Sequencing

Mycobacterium chimaera is ubiquitously spread in the environment, including factory and hospital water systems. Invasive cases of M. chimaera infection have been associated with aerosols produced by the use of heater-cooler units (HCU) during cardiac surgery. The aim of this study was to evaluate for the first time the performance of IRBiotyper system on a large number of M. chimaera isolates collected from longitudinal environmental HCUs samples and water sources from hospitals located in three Italian provinces. In addition, IR-Biotyper results were compared with whole-genome sequencing (WGS) analysis, the reference method for molecular epidemiology, to investigate the origin of M. chimaera contamination of HCUs. From November 2018 to May 2021, 417 water samples from 52 HCUs (Stockert 3T, n = 41 and HCU40, n = 11) and 23 hospital taps (used to fill the HCU tanks) were concentrated, decontaminated, and cultured for M. chimaera. Positive cultures (n = 53) were purified by agar plate subcultures and analyzed by IR-Biotyper platform and Ion Torrent sequencing system. IR-Biotyper spectra results were analyzed using a statistical approach of dimensionality reduction by linear discriminant analysis (LDA), generating three separate clusters of M. chimaera, ascribable to each hospital. Furthermore, the only M. chimaera-positive sample from tap water clustered with the isolates from the HCUs of the same hospital, confirming that the plumbing system could represent the source of HCU contamination and, potentially, of patient infection. According to the genome-based phylogenies and following the classification proposed by van Ingen and collaborators in 2017, three distinct M. chimaera groups appear to have contaminated the HCU water systems: subgroups 1.1, 2.1, and branch 2. Most of the strains isolated from HCUs at the same hospital share a highly similar genetic profile. The nonrandom distribution obtained with WGS and IR-Biotyper leads to the hypothesis that M. chimaera subtypes circulating in the local plumbing colonize HCUs through the absolute filter, in addition with the current hypothesis that contamination occurs at the HCU production site. This opens the possibility that other medical equipment, such as endoscope reprocessing device or hemodialysis systems, could be contaminated by M. chimaera. IMPORTANCE Our manuscript focuses on interventions to reduce waterborne disease transmission, improve sanitation, and control infection. Sanitary water can be contaminated by nontuberculous Mycobacteria, including M. chimaera, a causative agent of invasive infections in immunocompromised patients. We found highly similar genetic and phenotypic profiles of M. chimaera isolated from heater-cooler units (HCU) used during surgery to thermo-regulate patients' body temperature, and from the same hospital tap water. These results lead to the hypothesis that M. chimaera subtypes circulating in the local plumbing colonize HCUs through the absolute filter, adding to the current hypothesis that contamination occurs at the HCU production site. In addition, this opens the possibility that other medical equipment using sanitized water, such as endoscope reprocessing devices or hemodialysis systems, could be contaminated by nontuberculous Mycobacteria, suggesting the need for environmental surveillance and associated control measures.