DRUG SUSCEPTIBILITY OF LOW GROWING NON-TUBERCULOUS MYCOBACTERIA

In order to investigate the spectrum of drug susceptibility of slowly growing of non-tuberculous mycobacteria and define minimum inhibiting concentrations (MIC) regarding the drug panel including anti-tuberculosis drugs and antimicrobial agents of wide spectrum, 68 strains of slow growing non-tuberculous mycobacteria belonging to such species as M. avium, M. intracellulare, M. gordonae, M. kansasii, M. xenopi, M. malmoense and M. simiae were tested. Minimum inhibiting concentrations were defined with use of the panel consisting of 13 drugs of SLOWMYCO Sensititre (Trek Diagnostic System, Thermo Scientific, USA). It has been proved that the majority of tested strains of non-tuberculous mycobacteria were susceptible to clarithromycin and rifabutin. Amikacin, linezolid and moxifloxacin were also fairly effective. Considering that for mycobacteria of M. avium the borderline drug concentrations were not defined it is important to investigate and to compare the results of defining minimum inhibiting concentrations in vitro with therapy efficiency.