Antimicrobial susceptibility of nontuberculous mycobacteria from eye infections.

Purpose: To characterize formerly designated atypical or nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) associated with eye infections.

Methods: All clinical NTM eye isolates (112 isolates from 100 patients) submitted to a single national NTM reference laboratory between 1982 and 2009 were identified using polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism of the hsp65 gene. Isolates were tested against 10 antimicrobials, including besifloxacin, a new 8-chloro-fluoroquinolone.