Abstract:Objective To identify species of rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) and analyze clinical characteristics of 5 patients with mycobacteria bacteremia, and improve diagnosis and treatment level of the disease. Methods Five strains of RGM collected from Hainan General Hospital between 2016 and 2017 were preliminarily identified by MALDI-TOF MS technique and confirmed by 16s rRNA, clinical characteristics were analyzed combined with 15 cases of RGM bacteremia reported in the literatures. Results MALDI-TOF MS identification results were Mycobacterium mageritense, Mycobacterium abscessus,and Mycobacterium mucogenicum, each had 1 strain, Mycobacterium fortuitum had 2 strains. 16s rRNA identification results were Mycobacterium mageritense,Mycobacterium abscessus,Mycobacterium mucogenicum, Mycobacterium fortuitum and Mycobacterium porcinum, each had 1 strain. The main clinical symptom was fever, 2 patients died and 3 patients got better after treatment. Conclusion MALDI-TOF MS is a simple, convenient, and rapid method for the identification of RGM, identification results were highly conformed to 16s rRNA sequencing analysis. RGM bacteremia mostly occurrs in patients who receives artificial material and catheterization, laboratory and clinical diagnosis of the disease should be paid attention.