Abstract
A 74-year-old woman with hepatitis due to hepatitis C virus followed up using oral predonisolone (3 mg/day) for two years because of hypergammaglobulinemia-associated purpura reported fever and lumbago in February 2005. Upon admission in June, she was found in chest-computed tomography to have atelectasia in the right middle lung lobe and a nodule with a cavity in the right lower lobe. She tested positive for tuberculous glycolipid antibody. Gallium scintigraphy showed an abnormal accumulation in the lower lumbar vertebra. Magnetic resonance imaging showed abnormal enhancement at L4, L5, and their intervertebral disc. Mycobacterium intracellulare (M. intracellulare) was detected in blood culture, bronchoalveolar lavage, and a biopsy specimen from the intervertebral disc, yielding a diagnosis of disseminated nontuberculous mycobacteriosis (NTM) due to M. intracellulare. She was treated with clarithromycin (CAM), ethambutol (EB), and rifampicin (RFP), but EB and RFP were discontinued due to of the fever they induced. She was then treated with a combination of CAM, levofloxacin, and streptomycin and followed up as an out patient. Based on case reports of disseminated NTM infection in Japan, the prognosis is poor and a protocol must be established for its treatment.
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