Normal Estrogen, but Low Dehydroepiandrosterone Levels, in Women with Pulmonary Mycobacterium avium Complex. A Preliminary Study

For unclear reasons, the phenotypical hosts for nontuberculous mycobacterial lung infection are often thin, elderly, white women without underlying lung disease. As these women are usually postmenopausal, we hypothesized that a state of relative hormone deficiency may predispose some women to pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacterial infection.To conduct a prospective cross-sectional study to assess for alterations in systemic levels of sex...