Differences in Drug-Susceptibility Patterns between Mycobacterium avium , Mycobacterium intracellulare , and Mycobacterium chimaera Clinical Isolates: Prospective 8.5-Year Analysis by Three Laboratories

: It has been suggested that , , and have differential drug susceptibility patterns. We prospectively analyzed and compared the drug susceptibility patterns among these species over an 8.5-year period. : A microdilution method (Slomyco ) was performed for drug susceptibility testing of 402 , 273 , and 139 clinical isolates. : showed significantly higher resistance to moxifloxacin, ciprofloxacin, rifampicin, ethambutol, streptomycin, linezolid, cotrimoxazole, and clarithromycin. also showed higher minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) than and against all drugs except ethionamide, to which and showed greater resistance. : Our series demonstrated differential drug resistance patterns among the most frequent complex species. was more resistant than and versus eight antibiotics and showed greater MIC values to most of the antibiotics studied. These data suggest that knowledge of the local distribution and susceptibility profiles of these pathogens is essential for adequate clinical management.