Mycobacterium parascrofulacum , a new species of nontuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) belonging to group II, was first described in 2004. However, infection from this species is rare and infrequently reported. We report a lung disease caused by M. parascrofluceum in an immunocompetent patient with bronchiectasis. A 65-year-old man was referred to our hospital due to recurrent hemoptysis and sputum. A computed tomography scan of the chest showed bronchiectasis with peribronchial infiltration and centrilobular nodule in right middle lobe and left lower lobe. Nontuberculous mycobacteria were isolated twice from three expectorated sputum specimens. Both isolates were identified as M. parascrofulaceum by hsp65 gene sequencing analysis. In vitro drug susceptibility tests showed that the organism was sensitive to amikacin, ciprofloxacin, clarithromycin, moxifloxacin, rifampicin, trimethoprime/sulfamethoxazole and linezolid. We consider to long-term antibiotic therapy if symptoms and chest image of the patient are aggravated. As treatment and prognosis depend on the recognition of species, identification of the pathogen was important but complex. Little information on M. parascrofulaceum infection or therapies for treating this organism is available. Our experience of pulmonary infection caused by M. parascrofulaceum was discussed here to improve the current knowledge of infection caused by this bacterium.
Park et al. (Mon,) studied this question.