Nontuberculous Mycobacteria - Diagnosis

Diagnosis

Diagnosis of opportunistic mycobacteria is made by repeated isolation and identification of the pathogen with compatible clinical and radiological features. Similar to M. tuberculosis, most nontuberculous mycobacteria can be detected microscopically and grow on Löwenstein-Jensen medium. Many reference centres now use a nucleic acid-based method such as sequence differences detection in the gene coding for 16S ribosomal RNA to identify the species.

Pulmonary NTM disease diagnosis requires both identification of the mycobacterium in the patient's lung(s) as well as a high resolution CT scan of the lungs.