Introduction:

pulmonary tuberculosis affects men more frequently and severely. Whether this phenomenon occurs similarly for the non-tuberculous mycobacteria remains unknown.

Objective:

we aimed to identify if there is sex predominance in pulmonary diseases caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other mycobacteria.

Material and methods:

we performed a retrospective cross-sectional study. We studied cases of pulmonary disease in adults with a positive culture for any mycobacteria during 216-2018 at INER. We included 553 cases.

Results:

the main mycobacteria that we found belonged to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (73.42%), M. avium complex (16.64%), and other non-tuberculous mycobacteria (9.95%). Most cases were men in general (60.58%), and in the three groups, Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (56.40%), M. avium complex (75%), and other non-tuberculous mycobacteria (62.79%). The main comorbidities were HIV infection for men and diabetes mellitus for women.

Conclusions:

men were mainly affected with pulmonary mycobacteriosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and other non-tuberculous mycobacteria. This phenomenon poses changes in clinical approaches and the search for intrinsic determinants of men’s susceptibility to these infections.