Cervicofacial lymphadenitis due to Mycobacterium mantenii: rapid and reliable identification by MALDI-TOF MS

Abstract

Mycobacterium mantenii is a scotochromogenic non-tuberculous mycobacterium (NTM). Van Ingen et al. [1] described this bacterium for the first time in 2009 from the cervical lymph node samples from two immunocompetent children, respiratory samples from two adults and a water sample from Zambia. Since then, only two cases of disseminated M. mantenii infection have been described in immunocompromised patients [2], [3]. This mycobacterium has also been isolated in environmental samples from Ghana [4] and the Czech Republic [5]. In this report, two new cases involving immunocompetent girls with cervicofacial lymphadenitis due to M. mantenii are presented, and the reliability of matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) for identifying M. mantenii is evaluated.