Adenitis por micobacterias no tuberculosas

Conservative wait-and-see therapy versus antibiotic treatment for nontuberculous mycobacterial cervicofacial lymphadenitis in children

BACKGROUND

In this explorative study, 50 children with microbiologically confirmed nontuberculous mycobacterial cervicofacial lymphadenitis were randomized to either receive antibiotic therapy or follow a conservative wait-and-see approach. Our primary objective was to assess the time for all infected lymph nodes to heal in patients after the nonantibiotic, wait-and-see treatment, compared with patients after a 12-week course of clarithromycin and rifabutin.

METHODS

Fifty children (19 boys and 31 girls) with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)- or culture-confirmed diagnosis of cervicofacial nontuberculous mycobacterial infection were included in our study. Twenty-five children were randomized to receive antibiotic therapy and 25 to be given a wait-and-see approach.

RESULTS

The median age of the children was 35 months (range, 14-114 months). The median time to resolution of the disease for the antibiotic group was 36 weeks, compared with 40 weeks for the wait-and-see group. Adverse effects of antibiotic therapy included gastrointestinal complaints, fever, and reversible extrinsic tooth discoloration.

CONCLUSION

In children with an advanced stage of nontuberculous mycobacterial cervicofacial lymphadenitis, we observed no significant differences in median healing time between the wait-and-see group and the group receiving clarithromycin and rifabutin antibiotic therapy.

Treatment patterns of pediatric nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) cervical lymphadenitis as reported by nationwide surveys of pediatric otolaryngology and infectious disease societies

OBJECTIVE

To describe physician diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for pediatric nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) lymphadenitis, a disease for which surgical excision is recommended.

METHODS

We surveyed members of the Infectious Diseases Society of America Emerging Infections Network (EIN) and the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology (ASPO). We asked them to report clinical and microbiologic details of recent cases of NTM lymphadenitis seen in their practices.

RESULTS

200 physicians reported a total of 277 NTM lymphadenitis cases. Cervical lymph nodes (84%) were most frequently involved, and a majority of patients were non-Hispanic white (62%) males (54%) with median age 3.0 years. Tissue culture (61%) or polymerase chain reaction (12%) was utilized most frequently to confirm NTM etiology. In most (59%) cases, an etiologic organism was not identified. In cases, where an NTM organism isolate was identified, Mycobacterium avium complex (n=82, 72%) was the most common. Surgical excision followed by adjunctive antibiotic therapy was favored in the majority (59%) of cases where a treatment method was reported. The use of surgical excision alone or antibiotic therapy alone was reported respectively in 24% and 17% of cases. Antibiotics were prescribed without diagnostic confirmation of infectious organisms in 28% of cases.

CONCLUSION

Pediatric otolaryngologists and infectious disease specialists frequently treat cervical lymphadenitis empirically as NTM disease without bacteriologic confirmation. Antibiotic therapy is frequently employed with or without surgical excision.

Clinical pattern of tuberculous adenitis in Qatar: experience with 35 patients

A prospective observational study was conducted to describe the clinical presentation, diagnostic yield of fine-needle aspiration (FNA) cytology and lymph node biopsy and the outcome of tuberculous (TB) adenitis in patients admitted to Hamad General Hospital, Qatar, between 1 January and 31 December 2006. TB adenitis that was predominantly cervical was confirmed in 35 patients (28M, 7F) with a mean age of 29.4+/-9 y. Of the 35 cases, caseating granulomata were confirmed by FNA in 20, by lymph node biopsy following negative FNA in 9, and by biopsy alone in 6. Mycobacterium tuberculosis was cultured from FNA alone in 24 cases, in 9 cases from biopsies after negative FNA and in 6 cases from biopsies alone. The tuberculin test (PPD) was positive in all patients with TB adenitis (100%), while an HIV test was negative in all. The sensitivity of FNA cytology alone was 69% but when combined with a skin test it was 85%. It can be concluded that FNA cytology has an important role in the evaluation of TB adenitis, as a non-invasive alternative to excisional biopsy. After 12 months from the start of a 6-month course of combined antituberculous treatment, 32 patients were cured whereas 3 patients had left the country before completing therapy.