Prolongation of incubation time improves clinical diagnosis of Mycobacterium xenopi infection and allows susceptibility testing of mycobacterial strains against multiple antibiotics

Mycobacterium xenopi is a nontuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) whose clinical diagnosis and drug susceptibility studies are frequently hampered by poor in vitro growth. Extending the culture incubation time from 42 days (common-standard) to 56 days could improve the likelihood of diagnosis and provide strains for phenotypic drug susceptibility profiling of this poorly studied but clinically relevant mycobacterium. Time-to-positivity of...