[Report of Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare associated with kidney mycobacteriosis]. / Reporte de Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare asociado a micobacteriosis renal.

Consecutive samples of urine from a patient presenting radiological images of multicystic kidneys were microbiologically analyzed searching the possible presence of acid-alcohol resistant bacilli. The patient had already undergone complementary tests, which evidenced a kidney failure. As a result, it was isolated a slow-growth non pigmented mycobacterial strain corresponding to group III of Runyon. It was classified as Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare, according to conventional and alternative bacteriological studies, such as the analysis of fractions of mycobacterial mycolic acids by thin layer chromatography technique.

[Disseminated mycobacteriosis associated with Mycobacterium avium-intracellular (MAI) complex in HIV infected patients]. / Micobacteriosis diseminada asociada al complejo Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare (MAI), en paciente infectado con el virus de inmunodeficiencia humana.

Different types of samples from a 27-year-old female patient who was diagnosed AIDS after presenting an acute respiratory picture caused by Pneumocistis carinii, in 1997, were studied. From that moment on, the patient continued having respiratory pictures repeatedly, until she was admitted at "Pedro Kouri" Institute of Tropical Medicine with a chronic diarrheical picture, significant loss of weight and extreme anorexia, together with a constant wet cough, fever, etc. The necessary complementary tests were made and a hyperergic Mantoux and very low levels of CD4 cells (under 200 cells/m3) outstood. Microbiological studies were also conducted with samples from sputum, hemocultures and cerebrospinal fluid to discard the presence of acid-alcohol resistant bacilli (AARB). As a result of these studies, the repeated isolation was obtained in all types of worked samples from a slow-growth, creamy and non pigmented strain corresponding to Runyon's group III, which was classified as from the Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare complex. The patient was treated with antibacillary drugs without results, since she dies 4 weeks later due to the total dissemination of this infection. It should be stressed that it is the first case reported and microbiologically diagnosed of a generalized mycobacteriosis in a HIV positive patient due to Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare.

Evaluación de la prueba de la pirazinamidasa para la determinación de la susceptibilidad de Mycobacterium tuberculosis a la pirazinamida / Evaluation of the pyrazinamidase test for the detection of susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to pyrazinamide

The pyrazinamidase test was used to determine susceptibility to pyrazinamide in 55 strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis received at the National Laboratory of Reference and Research of Tuberculosis and Mycobacteria of the "Pedro KourÝ" Institute of Tropical Medicine during the first semester of 1997. On comparing the results obtained with the method of proportions, it was attained a correlation of 83.6 of sensitivity with 16.4 of false positives. It was proved that the pyrazinamidase test should not replace the method of proportions.