Unclassified Mycobacteria Research Articles

Treatment of Unclassified Mycobacteria-Reply

The statement referred to by Dr. Vishnevsky may be misleading, a not infrequent consequence of brevity necessary in editorial remarks. Enlarging upon this statement may dispel any confusion. Chemotherapy has a definite place in management of human infections caused by unclassified mycobacteria. Although this chemotherapy is based on same general principles utilized in treatment of tuberculosis, agents employed may differ. The frequent drug resistance of unclassified mycobacteria often dictates use of a wide variety of agents that are seldom used in therapy of classical pulmonary tuberculosis. Treatment failures can be common, particularly in infections with Group III (Battey strain) organisms. Prolonged use of ineffective drugs can be dangerous and unwarranted. The statement referred to by Dr. Vishnevsky was intended to refute occasionally voiced opinion that the failure to properly identify mycobacterium infecting a patient is of little consequence,

Treatment of Unclassified Mycobacteria

To the Editor:— InThe Journaleditorial, Unclassified Mycobacteria ( 184 :712 [June 1] 1963) the following statement was made: With these infections, prolonged isolation, hospitalization, and chemotherapy with the attendant physical, financial, and psychological burdens are probably unwarranted and even dangerous. This statement is misleading and may leave the impression, with those who are not thoroughly familiar with the today's status of treatment of mycobacterioses, that chemotherapy in cases of infection with anonymous (unclassified) mycobacteria is not indicated. While it is true that the mode of transmission of infections with anonymous acid-fast bacillus (AFB) is not clear, and that the possibility of man-to-man transmission has not been proved, the infection with anonymous strains of AFB, especially with photochromogenic and Battey strains, may result in a severe progressive tuberculosis-like disease. The accepted treatment to prevent further progression of the disease and arrest it is antituberculous chemotherapy based on the same

Unclassified Mycobacteria in the Etiology of Cat-scratch Fever: A Skin Test Evaluation

In this study the skin test reactions of 20 children who had recovered from cat-scratch fever, except for one in whom the disease was still active, and 20 controls who gave no history compatible with the disease were evaluated. From this appraisal it may be concluded that skin test reactions give no indication that classified or unclassified mycobacteria are the cause of cat-scratch fever.

An unclassified "unclassified" Mycobacterium.

An unusual unclassified mycobacterium has been repeatedly recovered over a period of years from a 46-year-old white woman with persistent respiratory symptoms and a slowly progressive pulmonary disease. Although the mycobacterium in this case was probably an opportunistic secondary invader, it appears to have played a role in the more recent progression of symptoms and roentgenographic pulmonary changes. The organism has been thoroughly studied but fails to conform fully to any of the usual subgroups of the unclassified mycobacteria as characterized in the currently employed schema. This case report emphasizes the increasing clinical and bacteriologic importance of the unclassified mycobacteria and presents a systematic approach to their identification through careful cultural, morphologic, and biochemical characterization.

Unclassified Mycobacteria: Incidence of Infection and Cause of False Positive Tuberculin Reaction

Unclassified Mycobacteria: Incidence of Infection and Cause of False Positive Tuberculin Reaction

Unclassified mycobacteria. Incidence of infection and cause of a false-positive tuberculin reaction.

IN two previous reports1 , 2 results suggested that infection with one of the so-called anonymous, atypical or unclassified mycobacteria might be the causative agent of a positive tuberculin reaction. One of these studies suggested the frequent occurrence of such infection in children. Both studies were conducted among patients of low socioeconomic status, primarily Negroes.The present study was undertaken among patients of a middle or upper socioeconomic stratum, and all the patients were white. In contrast to the previous groups, all of whom were tuberculin positive, patients in the present group were those encountered in routine pediatric practice, in which each . . .

Unclassified Mycobacteria Isolated from Human Suspect Tuberculosis Cases in Newfoundland: Preliminary Studies on 15 Strains

Unclassified Mycobacteria Isolated from Human Suspect Tuberculosis Cases in Newfoundland: Preliminary Studies on 15 Strains

Status of disease due to unclassified mycobacteria. A statement of the Subcommittee on Unclassified Mycobacteria of the Committee on Therapy.

"Status of Desease Due to Unclassified Mycobacteria." American Review of Respiratory Disease, 87(3), pp. 459–461

Spotting method of phage typing mycobacteria. Typing mycobacteria with routine test dilutions.

In recent years it has become increasingly apparent that the methods formerly used for identification and differentiation of tubercle bacilli implicated in human disease are no longer adequate. The acceptance, in varying degrees, into this group of the strains presently known as the unclassified mycobacteria has largely been responsible for this inadequacy. At the present time it is recognized that much-needed clinical studies of disease associated with some of the unclassified mycobacteria are hampered by the lack of adequate means of identifying strains. Until methods of identification of these strains are worked out, making it possible for investigators in widely separated areas to compare results, very little progress along this line is likely to be made. The chemical methods that have been developed by Konno (1) and the color characteristics found by Runyon (2), although among the best methods thus far used, are not sufficiently specific to indicate slight degrees of differences or closeness of relationships in strains under study in two laboratories where slight variations in cultural conditions may alter the appearances of strains having the same origin. Among pathogenic bacteria, only two methods have been found to provide really specific identification of strains of microorganisms, namely, the serologic method and the typing method. In the case of mycobacteria, serology has not thus far produced very practical means of differentiating between closely related strains. Attempts to phage type mycobacteria have been carried out by Froman (3), Hnatko (4), Takeya (5), Penso (6), Tokunaga (7), and others, and have resulted in the bacterial strains being assembled into groups that were susceptible, or resistant, to a certain number of strains of bacteriophage. With the exception of Tokunaga's work, the typing tests were made by spotting heavy concentrations of on bac-

Nonchromogenic Acid-Fast Bacilli Isolated from Tuberculous Swine

There are an increasing number of reports of progressive pulmonary tuberculosis in humans that is caused by a slow-growing, nonchromogenic, acid-fast organism which differs from the typical human variety of Mycobacterium (1-8). This group of organisms, referred to as the type (3), has been placed by Runyon (9) in Group III of the unclassified mycobacteria causing disease in man. The source of this infection has not been established. A search for the reservoir of Battey infections becomes important because of the world-wide incidence of these cases-the southeastern United States (3, 8), the Dutch West Indies (10), Canada (11), Australia (7)-and because pulmonary disease is produced which is clinically indistinguishable from tuberculosis but frequently resistant to the usual antituberculosis chemotherapeutic regimen. A number! of investigators (3, 4, 8, 12-15) have reported the resemblance of these organisms to Mycobacterium avium isolated from tuberculous fowl, and similar avian-like acid-fast organisms have been recovered from tuberculous swine (16). Undoubtedly, swine contribute to the soil reservoir of M. avium and may thus indirectly constitute a source of human Battey infections. Hence, it seemed worth while to explore the relationship among the very similar nonchromogenic acid-fast bacilli isolated from swine and avian and human sources.

結核免疫における特異性の研究

The present paper describes the study on the virulence of various strains of unclassified mycobacteria and the comparison of protective effects for infection with human Mycobacterium tuberculosis between those strains and BCG.1. Unclassified strains employed here were virulent for mice in the order of photochromogen P-16, non-photochromogen Ueda, scotochromogen Watanabe and non-photochromogen 121326.2. When mice immunized with the above strains and BCG were challenged with M tuberculosis strain Kurono, the multiplication in the lung was apparently inhibited only in the mice immunized with BCG. However, the multiplication in the spleen was inhibited also in the groups of mice immunized with unclassified mycobacteria to the same extent as in the BCG-immunized ice. No difference in the degree of inhibition was noted between the mice immunized with strain Ueda and those immunized with strain Watanabe.3. When the survival time of the challenged mice was compared, the mice immunized with strain Ueda showed a protective effect comparable to that by BCG immunization. The immunization with strain P-16 also conferred a protection, though weaker than that by BCG, but almost no effects were obtained by the immunization with strains Watanabe and 121326.4. There was a clear parallelism between the in vivo multiplication of strains of unclassified mycobacteria and pathological findings in organs caused by them.5. The mechanism of immunity conferred by unclassified mycobacteria was discussed and a possibility of its difference from the immunity by BCG has suggested.

Nonchromogenic acid-fast bacilli isolated from tuberculous swine. Their relation to M. avium and the "Battey" type of unclassified mycobacteria.

Nonchromogenic acid-fast bacilli isolated from tuberculous swine. Their relation to M. avium and the "Battey" type of unclassified mycobacteria.

Pathogenicity of Unclassified Mycobacteria for Mice. The Second Report.

Pathogenicity of Unclassified Mycobacteria for Mice. The Second Report.

The Immunizing Effect to M. Tuberculosis in Rabbits Vaccinated with Unclassified Mycobacteria

The present study was carricd out to determine the immunizing effect of six strains of unclassified mycobacteria saprophytes and BCG, to M. tuberculosis in rabbits which were vaccinacd with the above three groups of strain.The unclassified mycobacteria was isolated from the patients’ sputa who were clinically dingnosed ashaving the so-called active pulmonary tuberculosis in Korea. The saprophytic strains includes M. for-tuitum, M. smegmatis and acid-fast bacilli isolated from soil. The result obtained is summarized as follow: BCG is more effective in immunity against infection with M. tuberculosis among the above three groups, and unclassified mycobacteria was found to have a partial immunity to M. tuberculosis, while saprophytes failed to show protective ability against M. tuberculosis as seen in the control group.

Cutaneous reactions to unclassified mycobacterial antigens. A study of children in household contact with patients who excrete unclassified Mycobacteria.

Cutaneous reactions to unclassified mycobacterial antigens. A study of children in household contact with patients who excrete unclassified Mycobacteria.

The tolerances of unclassified mycobacteria. I. Limits of pH tolerance.

The tolerances of unclassified mycobacteria. I. Limits of pH tolerance.

Unclassified Mycobacteria

In the course of routine tuberculin testing of preschool children in a clinic it became apparent that a number of positive reactions to intermediate-strength tuberculin could not be attributed to exposure to persons infected with active tuberculosis. Furthermore, it appeared that many of these unexplained tuberculin conversions represented low-grade hypersensitivity and showed a propensity to revert to negativity on retesting 6 to 12 months later. 1 Since most of these children have been recommended for prophylactic antituberculous therapy by a Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics 2 based on the U.S. Public Health Service tuberculosis prophylaxis trial 3 findings, it became important to determine whether these reactions indicated the presence of tuberculosis. Edwards, Edwards, and Palmer 4 have noted that in some geographic areas many people had small reactions to intermediate-strength 5 TU (tuberculin units) tuberculin. They postulated that the unusual number of small reactors could be explained by

Simultaneous Comparative Skin Testing of Tuberculous Patients with Antigens Derived from M. Tuberculosis and Certain Unclassified Mycobacteria

ceived increasing attention both for case finding in tuberculosis and for differential diagnosis of pulmonary disease. From both aspects, the reliability and reaction of standard tuberculins and the significance of skin reactions to extracts of unclassified mycobacteria deserve continuing investigation. The present study was carried out to compare the incidence and size of reactions produced in tuberculous patients by tuberculins derived from M. tuberculosis and certain unclassified mycobacteria.

Carotenoids of photochromogens of "unclassified mycobacteria".

Pigments of the photochromogens of “unclassified mycobacteria” could be extracted with peteroleum ether after the treatment of cells with ethanol. Partition test of the saponified pigments showed that they are epiphasic carotenoids. Two pigments from the photochro mogen Forbers 84 were isolated by chromatography, in which were used alumina as adsorbent and peteroleum ether as solvent. One was yellowish and weakly adsorbed to alumina and gave an absorption spectrum characteristic to beta-carotene. Another was reddish and strongly adsorbed to alumina and gave an absorption spectrum characteristic to lycopene.

A requirement of oleic acid for growth of certain unclassified mycobacteria.

A requirement of oleic acid for growth of certain unclassified mycobacteria.