[Cavited pneumonia with Mycobacterium gastri positive culture smear].

BACKGROUND

Mycobacterium gastri is an atypical non pigmented mycobacteria infrequent in clinical practice. Few reports have been published about infections caused by microorganism, and only three of them, all before 1986, were respiratory infections.

METHODS

We report a case of cavitary pneumonia with sputum culture positive for Mycobacterium gastri, and we review the previous published cases.

RESULTS

We describe a 79-years old man diagnosed of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with chronic respiratory failure, hypertension, Alzheimer's disease and multiple myeloma IgG lambda type IIA, with multiple previous admissions in our institution. He has again admitted because of an acute episode of cough and fever. The chest radiography demonstrated a right lower cavitary infiltrate, and the sputum culture showed growth of Mycobacterium gastri.

DISCUSSION: We report a case of cavitary pneumonia in an immunocompromised patient caused by M. gastri resistant to isoniazid and pyrazinamide with fatal evolution. All of the cases previously described had a favourable outcome with the different treatment used.