Table 1.

Bronchoscopy-Related Pseudoinfections^*

Organisms	Total Reports, No.	Affected Patients, No.	Reference(s)
Bacteria
Proteus sp	2	8	3, 43
Bacillus sp	2	23	44, 45
Serratia marcescens	5	33†, ‡	40, 42, 46, 47, 48
Pseudomonas aeruginosa	8	220†, §	1, 2, 48, 49, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71
Legionella pneumophilia	1	5	38
Klebsiella pneumonia	2	19	3, 48
Methylobacterium mesophilicum	2	25	27, 34
Morganella morganii	1	1	3
Fungi
Aureobasidium sp	1	9	23
Rhodotorula rubra	3	56	21, 28, 41
Blastomyces dermatitidis	1	2	17
Trichosporon cutaneum	1	8	4, 5, 29
Penicillium sp	1	8	29
Cladosporium sp	1	1	29
Phialospora sp	1	1	29
Mycobacteria
Mycobacterium tuberculosis	9	24†, ‡	18, 20, 31, 32, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53
Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare	4	11†, ‡	20, 22, 39, 49
Mycobacterium xenopi	2	13†, ‱	25, 35
Mycobacterium chelonae	15	304†, ‡, ‱	19, 24, 25, 26, 27, 33, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62
Mycobacterium fortuitum	2	4†, ‱	25, 61
Mycobacterium gordonae	3	59†, ¶	24, 30, 36, 72
Mycobacterium abscessus	2	33	63, 64
Various nontuberculous mycobacteria	3	17†	37, 60, 65

^*Modified from Culver et al.⁶

^†The precise number of pseudoinfections is not specified. The number of affected cases are estimated from the excess positive bronchoscopy culture results compared to control periods.², ⁴⁸, ⁶⁰, ⁶⁹

^‡The exact number of total pseudoinfections is unclear in these reports.³⁹, ⁴², ⁴⁹, ⁵², ⁶¹

^§One report⁶⁹ described 35 excess cases but did not differentiate the proportion of pseudoinfections and true infections. The same outbreak is described elsewhere.⁴⁹, ⁷⁰

^∥One report²⁵ described 15 patients with M xenopi, M chelonae, and/or M fortuitum pseudoinfections but did not specify the numbers of each.

^¶Six patients with culture-positive M gordonae and two additional patients with smear-positive acid-fast bacilli only.³⁶.