• Jing Gui, Feng Wang, Chuang-yue Hong, Jin-li Li, and Jing Liang.
• Department of Pathogenic Laboratory, Shenzhen Center for Chronic Disease Control, Shenzhen 518020, China.
• Zhonghua Jie He He Hu Xi Za Zhi. 2013 Aug 1; 36 (8): 567-71.

ObjectiveTo study the drug resistance profile of Mycobacterium(M.) chelonae and M.abscessus and to evaluate the clinical application of Etest(epsilometer test) for susceptibility testing.MethodsTwenty clinical isolates of M.abscessus and 16 clinical isolates of M.chelonae from clinical specimens were collected.Strain identification was carried out by GenoType Mycobacterium CM assay(Hain Lifescience, Germany). The accuracy was evaluated by comparing Etest results to those obtained by broth microdilution. Thirty-six isolates were tested against amikacin, cefoxitin, ciprofloxacin, clarithromycin, doxycycline, imipenem, linezolid, sulfamethoxazole and tobramycin. The agreement among MICs and interpretive category was evaluated. Chi-squared test was used to compare observed frequency of each of the 2 examples.ResultsAll of the isolates(36/36) were sensitive to amikacin and cefoxitin, and only 1 isolate(1/36) was resistant to clarithromycin, but more isolates(29/36) were resistant to ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, imipenem and sulfamethoxazole.For M.chelonae, only 2/16 were resistant to linezolid, and 7/16 resistant to tobramycin.For M.abscessus, more than 12/20 were resistant to linezolid and 16/20 resistant to tobramycin. The agreement between broth microdilution MICs and Etest MICs for 9 drugs was 149/324.With amikacin, clarithromycin, doxycycline and imipenem, the agreement for interpretive category was excellent(35/36), followed by sulfamethoxazole(34/36), which corresponded to rarely very major error of 2/36.With ciprofloxacin and tobramycin, agreement for interpretive category was 31/36 and 26/36.With cefoxitin and linezolid, the agreement of Etest MICs was the lowest(14/36), resulting in the resistant category.ConclusionsIsolates of M.chelonae and M.abscessus exhibit far more susceptibility to amikacin, cefoxitin and clarithromycin than any other antimicrobial agents.Linezolid and tobramycin showed sensitivity to some isolates of M.chelonae.It is suitable for the Etest method as a simple reliable method for the drug susceptibility of amikacin, ciprofloxacin, clarithromycin, doxycycline, imipenem, and tobramycin except to cefoxitin and linezolid. The Etest method of determining sulfamethoxazole susceptibility should be careful.

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