Connect
← Return to (MAC/MAI) Mycobacterium Avium Complex Pulmonary Disease: Join us
Discussion
(MAC/MAI) Mycobacterium Avium Complex Pulmonary Disease: Join us
MAC & Bronchiectasis | Last Active: Oct 29 5:15pm | Replies (9350)Comment receiving replies
Hi people, how long do you all have to wait for results from your sputum tests or bronchoscopies to see if you still have NTM in your lungs ?
I've often waited 8 or 9 weeks to get the results. It drives me crazy waiting so long !
(And it sucks too -- instead of doing the 100 year old dish-culturing tests they do in Australia, they could do Real-time PCR tests with a much shorter waiting time for results. They are not very kind to us !)
Replies to "Hi people, how long do you all have to wait for results from your sputum tests..."
@anniepie we also have the long duration tests, it usually is 6 to 8 weeks depending on how many you have maby.
@anniepie Some results come back within a few days, but MAC generally takes several weeks for culture results to be posted. Irene
My results on sputum from Bronchoscopy done October 2, 2020...were given to my pulmo & id docs in FEBRUARY 2021. I had given up figured some lab rat (overwhelmed during covid pandemic) dropped, lost, or flushed my sputum culture inadvertently. My docs were diligent in requesting the lab (somewhere in Texas) to give the sensitivity results...the AFB came back lighting quick so they knew I had MAC...it was the sensitivity that was the hold up. End of story was...in February they find out that I have 2 species of Avium camped out in my lungs. Lucky for me..they are not resistant to Azithromycin...so I continue on the 3 drugs. Four months is a long time to wait...now I’m curious about PCR...will ask my docs next time they culture my sputum. Not looking forward to that because I am totally bone dry...have no idea how they propose to get another sample other than by Bronchoscopy.
Best wishes for all of us.
Regina
@anniepie I had my sputum test Jan 7, and I'm still waiting for results.
Connect
The sputum culture is the "gold standard" test for NTM - mycobacteria are an extremely slow growing bacteria. Once positive, the susceptibility to specific antibiotics must also be tested.
I too have wondered about PCR testing for mycobacteria, so I went wandering down the dark hole of research....again.
What I found is that is is being tried, but so far there hasn't been a comprehensive large scale study. The best research I have found so far is here: https://jcm.asm.org/content/53/3/930
If you can wade through it, the conclusions seem to be:
PCR testing has promise for diagnosing TB & NTM, but currently the application is limited because specific DNA sequences need to be tested for. So if a strain is known (eg M tuberculosis) the tests are pretty accurate, if not (eg M. avium, strain unknown), not so helpful.
More testing is needed to determine whether PCR testing is effective in identifying low levels of bacteria in the specimen. And side-by-side comparison of PCR and sputum assays of the same sample need to be compared.
Something to watch for in the future!
Sue