A Prospective Registry For Non Tuberculous Mycobacterial (NTM) Infections

Nontuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) is difficult to treat and has no standardised antibiotic therapy. There have been increasing recognition of the need for measurements of NTM care around the world, as rates of NTM infections have begun to supercede Tuberculosis infections for the first time. As health care-associated NTM outbreaks also pose an infection control risk for patients undergoing surgery, this study provides a platform for further greater uniformity and opportunities for improvement in care. (1,2)

Singapore General Hospital (SGH) is a tertiary hospital and sees patients of various complex medical illnesses. Patients with Nontuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) infections are also on follow up with the infectious diseases specialists SGH. The care of NTM patients can last many years, with patients requiring multiple admissions for reinfections/relapses and are often on long term suppressive therapy and follow up at the Specialist Outpatient Clinic. (3,4)The lack of standardised care for NTM patients, lengthy treatment time for NTM infections, as well as increases in macrolide-resistant NTM infections, warrants a need for research into the epidemiology and best practice to treat this group of patients. (5,6) We seek to better define the epidemiology of this group of patients and hope to objectively measure the effectiveness and quality of our NTM care delivery in SGH.

Currently there is a lack of a systematic database to track our quality of care and support services. As there are many Infectious Diseases Specialists in the department, each may have slight variation in clinical practice and preference in the face of a lack of proper treatment guideline. We believe NTM management can be improved with a consistent care delivery pathway and more standardization of therapy and follow up plan. This will lead to better desired patient outcome. This prospective observational data collection will allow us to evaluate our current standard of care for these patients, which can lead to identification for areas of improvement so that we can refine our strategies and implement more effective and standardized guidelines in the future.

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4. Payen MC, De Wit S, Clumeck N. Manifestations, diagnosis and treatment of non-tuberculous mycobacterial infections in patients with HIV infection. Revue des Maladies Respiratoires 1997 Dec;14 Suppl 5:S142-51
5. Russell CD, Claxton P, Doig C, Seagar AL, Rayner A, Laurenson IF. Non-tuberculous mycobacteria: a retrospective review of Scottish isolates from 2000 to 2010. Thorax 2013 [Epub ahead of print]
6. Binder AM, Adjemian J, Olivier KN, Prevots DR. Epidemiology of Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Infections and Associated Chronic Macrolide Use among Persons with Cystic Fibrosis. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 2013; [Epub ahead of print]