Ann Lab Med.  2013 Sep;33(5):356-359. 10.3343/alm.2013.33.5.356.

First Case of Mycobacterium longobardum Infection

• Hong SK
• Sung JY
• Lee HJ
• Oh MD
• Park SS
• Kim EC

• KMID: 1781342
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3343/alm.2013.33.5.356

Abstract

Mycobacterium longobardum is a slow-growing, nontuberculous mycobacterium that was first characterized from the M. terrae complex in 2012. We report a case of M. longobardum induced chronic osteomyelitis. A 71-yr-old man presented with inflammation in the left elbow and he underwent a surgery under the suspicion of tuberculous osteomyelitis. The pathologic tissue culture grew M. longobardum which was identified by analysis of the 65-kDa heat shock protein and full-length 16S rRNA genes. The patient was cured with the medication of clarithromycin and ethambutol without further complications. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a M. longobardum infection worldwide.

Keyword

Mycobacterium longobardum; Nontuberculous mycobacteria; Osteomyelitis

MeSH Terms

Aged
Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use
Bacterial Proteins/genetics
Chaperonin 60/genetics
Clarithromycin/therapeutic use
Elbow/pathology
Ethambutol/therapeutic use
Humans
Male
Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous/*microbiology
Nontuberculous Mycobacteria/classification/genetics/*isolation & purification
Osteomyelitis/diagnosis/drug therapy/*microbiology/pathology
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics
Treatment Outcome
Anti-Bacterial Agents
Bacterial Proteins
Chaperonin 60
Clarithromycin
Ethambutol
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Pathological specimens of left elbow soft tissue from the patient with Mycobacterium longobardum infection. Necrotizing granulomatous inflammation with cystic abscess formation was observed (H&E, ×40).

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  Fig. 2 Phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA sequences constructed using the neighbor-joining method. Nucleotide sequences were used to align the reference panels provided by the National Center for Biotechnology Information Reference Sequence (RefSeq) database. This isolate was identified as Mycobacterium longobardum.

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