PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - W. Hoefsloot AU - Jakko van Ingen AU - C. Andrejak AU - K. Ängeby AU - R. Bauriaud AU - P. Bemer AU - N. Beylis AU - M.J. Boeree AU - J. Cacho AU - V. Chihota AU - E. Chimara AU - G. Churchyard AU - R. Cias AU - R. Dasa AU - C.L. Daley AU - P.N.R. Dekhuijzen AU - D. Domingo AU - F. Drobniewski AU - J. Esteban AU - M. Fauville-Dufaux AU - D.B. Folkvardsen AU - N. Gibbons AU - E. Gómez-Mampaso AU - R. Gonzalez AU - H. Hoffmann AU - P.R. Hsueh AU - A. Indra AU - T. Jagielski AU - F. Jamieson AU - M. Jankovic AU - E. Jong AU - J. Keane AU - W.J. Koh AU - B. Lange AU - S. Leao AU - R. Macedo AU - T. Mannsåker AU - T.K. Marras AU - J. Maugein AU - H.J. Milburn AU - T. Mlinkó AU - N. Morcillo AU - K. Morimoto AU - D. Papaventsis AU - E. Palenque AU - M. Paez-Peña AU - C. Piersimoni AU - M. Polanová AU - N. Rastogi AU - E. Richter AU - M.J. Ruiz-Serrano AU - A. Silva AU - M.P. da Silva AU - H. Simsek AU - D. van Soolingen AU - N. Szabó AU - R. Thomson AU - M.T. Tórtola Fernandez AU - E. Tortoli AU - S.E. Totten AU - G. Tyrrell AU - T. Vasankari AU - M. Villar AU - R. Walkiewicz AU - K. Winthrop AU - D. Wagner AU - for NTM-NET (www.ntm-net.org) TI - The geographic diversity of nontuberculous mycobacteria isolated from pulmonary samples: A NTM-NET collaborative study AID - 10.1183/09031936.00149212 DP - 2013 Jan 01 TA - European Respiratory Journal PG - erj01492-2012 4099 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/early/2013/04/17/09031936.00149212.short 4100 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/early/2013/04/17/09031936.00149212.full AB - A significant knowledge gap exists concerning the geographical distribution of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) isolation worldwide.To provide a snapshot of NTM species distribution, global partners in the NTM-NET framework (www.ntm-net.org), a branch of TBNET, provided identification results of the total number of patients in 2008 in whom NTM were isolated from pulmonary samples. From these data, we visualized the relative distribution of the different NTM found per continent and country.We received species identification data for 20182 patients, from 62 laboratories in 30 countries across six continents. Ninety-one different NTM species were isolated. Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) bacteria predominated in most countries, followed by M. gordonae and M. xenopi. Important differences in geographical distribution of MAC species as well as M. xenopi, M. kansasii, and rapid growing mycobacteria were observed.This snapshot demonstrates that the species distribution among NTM isolates from pulmonary specimens in the year 2008 differed by continent and differs by countries within these continents. These differences in species distribution may partly determine the frequency and manifestations of pulmonary NTM disease in each geographical location.