Clinical significance and epidemiologic analyses of Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium intracellulare among patients without AIDS

The clinical significance and prevalence of Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium intracellulare were analyzed in a cohort of 7,472 patients who, from 1999 to 2003, sought care at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and had cultures performed for mycobacteria. Patients were stratified for age, sex, and underlying diseases, and bacteria were identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. M. avium was isolated in 62 (0.83%) of 7,472 patients and M. intracellulare in 65 (0.87%). Clinically, only 10 of the 62 (16.2%) patients with M. avium had probable to definite evidence of infection, whereas the majority (83.8%) had weak evidence of infection. Sex and age did not affect the isolation or infection of M. avium. Hematological tumors predisposed to M. avium colonization but not infection. In contrast, 41 of the 65 (63.1%) patients with M. intracellulare had probable to definite infection, a level much higher than those with M. avium (P < 0.001). M. intracellulare was more prevalent in women (1.33% of 3,311) than in men (0.50% of 4,161) (P < 0.001), and underlying diseases had no effect in women. Men with lung cancer had a higher prevalence (1.37%) than men without (0.34%) (4.0-fold; P < 0.001), but it was similar to that in women. A marked age trend for the isolation of M. intracellulare among women was noted: 0.27% (1 -fold) for ages of < 50 years, 0.85% (3.1-fold) for ages 50 to 59 years, 1.50% (5.6-fold) for ages 60 to 69 years, and 3.74% (13.9-fold) for ages >= 70 years (trend, P < 0.001). The combined rate for women >= 50 was 1.86% (95% confidence interval [1.30 to 2.42%]) (6.9-fold). Together, these results suggest that, among non-AIDS patients, M. intracellulare is more pathogenic and tends to infect women increasingly beyond menopause (age :50 years) regardless of underlying disease. The prevalence rate of 1.86% in postmenopausal women suggests the need to further investigate the public health significance of M. intracellulare.