Body habitus in patients with and without bronchiectasis and non-tuberculous mycobacteria.

Female gender, tall stature, presence of bronchiectasis are associated with pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections. The biologic relationship between the body habitus and NTM infection is not well defined and the body habitus profile of the patients with NTM and concurrent bronchiectasis is completely unknown.We conducted a case control study at the Miami VA Healthcare System and the University of Illinois Medical Center on patients with pulmonary NTM infections between 2010 and 2015. We compared pulmonary NTM subjects with and without bronchiectasis. NTM infection was confirmed by using the American Thoracic Society/ Infectious Disease Society of America criteria. Standard radiological criteria were used to define bronchiectasis in chest CT-scan.Two hundred twenty subjects with pulmonary NTM were enrolled in the study. Sixty six subjects (30%) had bronchiectasis on CT scan of the chest. Subjects in the bronchiectasis group included more women (p = 0.002) and were significantly older (p = 0.005). Those patients who had bronchiectasis tended to have a significantly lower weight (less than 50kg) and height ≤155 cm (p