High efficacy of clofazimine and its synergistic effect with amikacin against rapidly growing mycobacteria.

The aim of this study was to determine whether clofazimine, dapsone and cycloserine may be suitable antimicrobial agents for the treatment of infections due to rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM). The antimicrobial activity of the three drugs against 117 Mycobacterium abscessus isolates, 48 Mycobacterium fortuitum isolates and 20 Mycobacterium chelonae isolates was evaluated based on their broth microdilution minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) against the isolates. Clofazimine was highly efficacious against these RGM. The vast majority of M. abscessus, M. fortuitum and M. chelonae isolates (99.1%, 91.7% and 100%, respectively) had clofazimine MICs of