The University of Iowa was awarded a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Safety and Healthcare Epidemiology Prevention Research Development (SHEPheRD) contract to create a registry of persons infected with nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) after exposure to heater cooler units during cardiothoracic surgical procedures. We created the NTM INFEcT (INFections after Exposure To heater cooler units) Registry to collect the necessary data. The goal of the NTM INFEcT Registry is to collect data about patients’ heater cooler unit exposures, the heater cooler units to which they were exposed, their symptoms, clinical findings, time to and method of diagnosis, treatments, response to treatments and outcomes. The Institutional Review Board of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine approved the Registry.

We have included the case definition in the NTM Inclusion Criteria. If you have identified patients who you think meet the confirmed or probable case definition please contact the Registry at contact@NTMINFEcT.org.