Treatment outcomes of macrolide-susceptible Mycobacterium abscessus lung disease

Mycobacterium abscessus lung disease is difficult to treat due to inducible resistance to macrolides. However, 15%-20% of isolates are macrolide susceptible. In 14 patients with macrolide-susceptible M. abscessus lung disease, all isolates had nonfunctional erm(41) gene, and sputum culture conversion rate was achieved in 93% (13/14) following antibiotic therapy.This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning (NRF-2015R1A2A1A 01003959) and the Ministry of Education (NRF-2016R1A6A3A11930364)