ObjectiveTo investigate the clinical characteristics of non-tuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) pulmonary disease and pulmonary tuberculosis, as well as the bacterial distribution of NTM pulmonary disease. Methods The bacterial distribution and clinical characteristics of 104 patients with NTM lung disease hospitalized in Jiangxi Provincial People’s Hospital from May 2017 to May 2020 were retrospectively analyzed, as well as the clinicplal characteristics of 155 patients with tuberculosis hospitalized during the same period. Results The age of NTM lung disease group [(60±15) years] was higher than that of tuberculosis group [(55±19) years]. There were statistically significant differences in basic diseases (such as malignant tumor, type 2 diabetes, old tuberculosis, bronchiectasis), laboratory examination (such as blood routine examination, albumin) and chest imaging characteristics between the two groups (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in clinical symptoms (such as cough, sputum or fever) (P>0.05). The common underlying diseases of NTM lung disease were malignant tumor (29%), bronchiectasis (21%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (19%), etc. The common clinical symptoms of NTM lung disease included cough, sputum, fever, hemoptysis, chest tightness and shortness of breath, and other non-specific respiratory symptoms. The common manifestations of NTM lung disease on chest high-resolution CT (HRCT) included patchy images (82%), mediastinal lymph node enalargement (35%), pleural thickening (31%), pleural effusion (26%) and other signs. The isolates of NTM included Mycobacterium avium (50%), Mycobacterium intracellulare (21%), Mycobacterium chelonae/abscessus (14%), Mycobacterium fortuitum (5%), Mycobacterium gordonae (4%), Mycobacterium gilvum (3%), and Mycobacterium smegmatis (3%). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that advanced age (OR=1.027) was a risk factor for NTM lung disease. Conclusions The clinical manifestations of NTM lung disease and tuberculosis are similar and difficult to distinguish. For male patients over 60 years old with malignant tumor, old tuberculosis, bronchiectasis and other basic diseases, and the chest HRCT findings are mainly bronchiectasis, NTM lung disease should be actively excluded. There is little difference in clinical manifestations between different strains of NTM lung disease, and the treatment cycle of NTM lung disease is long and easy to be interrupted, requiring enhanced follow-up.
Objective To investigate a suspected outbreak of hospital-acquired infections caused by Mycobacterium chelonae related to flexible bronchoscope (hereinafter referred to as “bronchofibroscope”) and apply targeted high-throughput sequencing (tNGS) technology for etiological analysis, providing references for controlling hospital infection outbreaks. Methods A retrospective survey of patients who were detected with Mycobacterium chelonae through tNGS testing of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) after bronchofibroscopy at the Zhengdong District, People’s Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, People’s Hospital of Zhengzhou between May 1, 2018 and March 18, 2024. The causes were investigated through comprehensive measures including on-site epidemiological surveys and environmental health assessments, and intervention measures were developed and evaluated for effectiveness. Results A total of 52 patients were included. Mycobacterium chelonae was detected in 30 patients, nosocomial infection was excluded in all cases. The suspicious contaminated bronchofibroscope lavage fluid and its cleaning and disinfection equipment, environment and other samples were collected. The traditional microbial culture results were negative. The tNGS results showed that Mycobacterium chelonae was detected in bronchofibroscope lavage fluid (sequence number 156), and all the patients with Mycobacterium chelonae detected in BALF used the bronchofibroscope. It was judged that this event was a pseudo-outbreak of nosocomial infection caused by the contamination of bronchofibroscope with the patient’s BALF. After three months of continuous follow-up after the comprehensive control measures were taken, Mycobacterium chelonae was not detected by tNGS in bronchofibroscope lavage fluid or patients’ BALF. All patients in the hospital improved and discharged without any new cases. The pseudo-outbreak of nosocomial infection was effectively controlled. Conclusions There are many links in the reprocessing of bronchofibroscope, which is easy to cause pollution, and the management needs to be strengthened. tNGS detection has the characteristics of high efficiency, few background bacteria and clear pathogen spectrum, which can be used as a supplementary means for the investigation of nosocomial infection outbreaks, and is of great significance for identifying the source of infection and determining the transmission route.
Objectives To evaluate the effect and safety of mycobacterium vaccae in the treatment of recurrent treated pulmonary tuberculosis. Methods We searched PubMed (1997 to 2006), VIP (1997 to 2006), Wanfang database (1997 to 2006), The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (Issue 4, 2006) and the National Research Register (1996 to 2006). Randomized controlled trials comparing the mycobacterium vaccae immunotherapy group and the control group were included. Two reviewers independently performed data extraction and quality assessment. Data were analyzed using RevMan 4.2.2 software by The Cochrane Collaboration. Results Eleven high quality trials were included. Meta-analyses showed that mycobacterium vaccae immunotherapy plus chemotherapy resulted in higher sputum negative conversion rate (RR=1.36, 95%CI 1.21 to 1.54), higher lesion absorption rate (RR=1.39, 95%CI 1.13 to 1.72), and lower lesion non-absorption rate (RR=0.46, 95%CI 0.36 to 0.60), compared with the control group. These differences were all statistically significant. No serious adverse events were reported. Conclusion As an adjunct to chemotherapy, mycobacterium vaccae is helpful for patients with recurrent treated pulmonary tuberculosis in terms of improving cell-medicated immunity, sputum negative conversion and X-ray manifestation. More high quality studies are needed for further analysis.
目的 探讨肾移植患者非结核分枝杆菌（NTM）病临床特点及分子诊断。 方法 回顾性分析2011年4月1例皮肤软组织NTM感染的肾移植患者的临床特点，并以其病变组织DNA为模板，聚合酶链反应（PCR）扩增hsp65基因和rpoB基因序列，测序比对鉴定其NTM菌种。结合文献复习NTM病及分析分子生物学技术在移植患者NTM感染诊断中的作用。 结果 该肾移植患者系皮肤软组织胞内分枝杆菌感染，临床特点与结核病极其相似，难以进行鉴别诊断。PCR扩增、测序的结果显示hsp65产物和rpoB产物序列与胞内分枝杆菌GeneBank中FJ643456.1及CP003324.1序列100%一致。 结论 NTM病的临床表现与结核病相似，分子生物学方法鉴定菌种对移植患者胞内分枝杆菌病的诊断有帮助。
ObjectiveTo explore application value of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology in diagnosis of pathogenic microorganism infection through two cases report and literature review.MethodsThe NGS technology was used to make clear diagnosis of two cases of suspected pulmonary tuberculosis and pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacterial diseases. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of these two patients was collected for gene detection of pathogens using the NGS technology. A systematic literature review was performed for similar published cases in WanFang and CNKI database, using the keywords (next-generation sequencing) OR (NGS) AND (microorganism OR infection) from January 2000 to January 2018, using the PubMed database to retrieve the English literature before January 2018 with the " NGS, infectious diseases, China” as keywords.ResultsOne case of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and one case of non-tuberculous Mycobacteria were detected respectively. A total of 221 Chinese literatures and 3 English literatures were retrieved, excluding dissertations, conferences and newspapers. Finally, 10 articles were published in the infectious diseases and respiratory diseases subjects. The role of NGS technology in the diagnosis and study of related pathogens is proposed.ConclusionThe NGS method is expected to achieve precision medical purposes, such as early diagnosis of infectious diseases, transmission control, accurate treatment, good prognosis and so on.
Objective To analyze the clinical characteristics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection of the sternum after cardiac surgery. Methods A computerized search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Wanfang, and CNKI databases for published case reports of post-cardiac surgery sternal Mtb infections up to July 18, 2023. Two researchers independently screened the included cases, extracted relevant data, and analyzed clinical features. Results A total of 15 articles involving 26 patients were included, comprising 16 males and 10 females, with a mean age of (61.9±15.6) years (range 5-80). Previous surgical histories included coronary artery bypass grafting (14 patients, 53.8%), valve surgery (8 patients, 30.8%), congenital heart disease surgery (3 patients, 11.5%), and aortic surgery (2 patients, 7.7%). The main symptoms and signs were wound abscesses and poor healing, often accompanied by pain, with or without redness and swelling, while systemic symptoms such as low-grade fever, night sweats, and weight loss were typically absent. The median time for infection to be discovered in 13 patients after surgery was 10.0 (3.0, 13.0) months, and the median interval between infection discovery and diagnosis in 9 patients was 3.0 (2.0, 6.0) months. The primary diagnostic methods included Mtb culture, histopathology, and acid-fast staining of debrided bone tissue or pus. One patient died of cardiac arrest before diagnosis. Among the 25 diagnosed patients, 13 received only antitubercular therapy (11 of whom had undergone surgical treatment before diagnosis), while 12 received combined antitubercular and surgical treatment. All 25 patients were successfully cured, with antitubercular therapy lasting 6-12 months. Conclusion Post-cardiac surgery sternal Mtb infection has a prolonged latency period and poses significant diagnostic challenges, leading to high rates of missed and misdiagnosed cases. Timely diagnosis and treatment can markedly improve prognosis.
Objective To investigate the clinical application value of GeneXpert Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB)/ rifampin (RIF) in urine samples for tuberculosis diagnosis. Methods The patients with clinically highly suspected tuberculosis admitted to West China Hospital of Sichuan University between January 1, 2018 and June 1, 2023 were selected retrospectively. The diagnostic efficacy of urine GeneXpert MTB/RIF detection, such as sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value, were retrospectively analyzed to evaluate its clinical value in the diagnosis of tuberculosis. Correlation analysis was further conducted to explore the correlation between positive levels of GeneXpert MTB/RIF in urine samples and laboratory test indicators. Results A total of 400 patients were included. Among them, 163 cases were in the clinical tuberculosis group and 237 cases were in the clinical non tuberculosis group. In the clinical tuberculosis group, 112 cases were urogenital tuberculosis patients and 51 cases were non-urogenital tuberculosis patients. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of urine GeneXpert MTB/RIF in the diagnosis of tuberculosis were 55.2%, 97.5%, 93.8% and 76.0%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of urine GeneXpert MTB/RIF in the diagnosis of urogenital tuberculosis were 65.2%, 92.0%, 76.0% and 87.2%, respectively, and the diagnostic sensitivity was further improved. Correlation analysis showed that the positive degree of urine GeneXpert MTB/RIF was correlated with the levels of hemoglobin, serum total protein, blood serum albumin, and other indicators. Conclusions Urine GeneXpert MTB/RIF detection offers high sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of tuberculosis, especially in urogenital tuberculosis, which is helpful for the early and rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis patients. The positive degree reported by the GeneXpert MTB/RIF in urine may indicate disease severity.
To screen new tuberculosis diagnostic antigens and vaccine candidates, we predicted the epitopes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis latent infection-associated protein Rv2004c by means of bioinformatics. The homology between Rv2004c protein and human protein sequences was analyzed with BLAST method. The second structures, hydrophilicity, antigenicity, flexibility and surface probability of the protein were analyzed to predict B cell epitopes and T cell epitopes by Protean software of DNAStar software package. The Th epitopes were predicted by RANKPEP and SYFPEITHI supermotif method, the CTL epitopes were predicted by means of combination analyses of SYFPEITHI supermotif method, BIMAS quantitative motif method and NetCTL prediction method. The peptide sequences with higher scores were chosen as the candidate epitopes. Blast analysis showed that Rv2004c protein had low homology with human protein. This protein had abundant secondary structures through analysis of DNAStar software, the peptide segments with high index of hydrophilicity, antigenicity, surface probability and flexibility were widely distributed and were consistent with segments having beta turn or irregular coil. Ten candidates of B cell epitopes were predicted. The Th epitopes of Rv2004c protein were located after the 200th amino acid. Of 37 Th cell epitopes predicted, there were more epitopes of HLA-DRB1*0401 and HLA-DRB1*0701 phenotypes, and the MHC restrictive types of some Th cell epitopes exist cross overlap. Of 10 CTL epitopes predicted, there were more number and higher score of HLA-A2 restricted epitopes. Therefore Mycobacterium tuberculosis Rv2004c protein is a protein antigen with T cell and B cell epitopes, and is expected to be a new target protein candidate for tuberculosis diagnosis and vaccine.