[Clinical features of the lung diseases due to Mycobacterium avium and M. intracellulare].

In recent years, it has been made easy to identify Mycobacterium avium and M. intracellulare by DNA-probe test. To evaluate possible clinical differences between the lung diseases due to M. avium and those due to M. intracellulare, we studied a total of 248 cases (136 due to M. avium and 112 due to M. intracellulare). M. avium cases were found more frequently in the eastern part of Japan, whereas M. intracellulare cases were seen more frequently in the western part of Japan. There was no significant difference between M. avium cases and M. intracellulare cases in sex, age, complications, chief complaint, body weight, tuberculin skin test, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, serum protein content, findings of chest X ray. M. avium cases were more frequently detected by health examination. M. avium was more susceptible to cycloserine than M. intracellulare. On the other hand, M. intracellulare was more susceptible to streptomycin and kanamycin. The prognosis of M. intracellulare cases were better than M. avium cases, when compared only the patients who showed positive tuberculin skin test.