Comparison of azithromycin and erythromycin in the treatment of atypical pneumonias

Abstract

An open, randomized, multicentre study compared the efficacy and safety of the prototype, azalide, azithromycin, and erythromycin in the treatment of atypical pneumonias. Azithromycin was administered for five days at a dosage of 250 mg bd on day 1 and 250 mg once daily on days 2 to 5. Erythromycin was given for ten days at 500 mg qid. Causative pathogens were identified by serological methods. Of 57 patients treated with azithromycin, Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydia psittaci were identified in 31 and eight patients, respectively. Of 44 patients treated with erythromycin, M. pneumoniae and C. psittaci were identified in 24 and eight patients, respectively. There were no therapeutic failures in either treatment group. Side effects were observed in one of 57 patients on azithromycin and in six of 44 patients on erythromycin. Azithromycin appears to be as effective as erythromycin in the treatment of atypical pneumonias and better tolerated.

Fastidious intracellular bacteria as causal agents of community-acquired pneumonia

“…Clinical studies comparing a 10-14-day course of erythromycin or clarithromycin and a 5-day course of azithromycin for the treatment of atypical pneumonia showed similar success rate with clinical cure achieved in 95-100% of subjects [99,101,[103][104][105]. No differences were observed with respect to the subgroups of patients in whom M. pneumoniae was documented (culture, serology or PCR) [78,99,101,[103][104][105]. Bacteriological cure could be documented in most of the few cases with positive cultures for M. pneumoniae [99,101,103].…”

Respiratory tract infections by Mycoplasma pneumoniae in children: a review of diagnostic and therapeutic measures

“…The clinical cure rate was 98%, the radiological success rate 98% and the eradication of MP was 100%. Schonwald et al [114] and Manfredi et al [93] compared the ecacy of azithromycin with erythromycin in atypical pneumonias and lower respiratory tract infections. The clinical cure rates were 100% and 96.1%, respectively.…”

“…The cure rate was 92.3%. Schonwald et al [114] compared roxithromycin with azithromycin in the treatment of atypical pneumonia. The clinical cure rates were 94.3% and 98.9%, respectively.…”

Azithromycin versus comparative therapy for the treatment of community acquired pneumonia

“…Thirteen studies have evaluated the efficacy of azithromycin in 1576 patients with community acquired pneumonia [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]22]. These open studies compared treatment with azithromycin to benzyl penicillin, erythromycin, cefaclor, roxithromycin or amoxicillin/clavulanate and determined that azithromycin was as effective and as well tolerated as other antimicrobial drugs.…”

“…Pulmonary concentrations of azithromycin remain well above minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of the most important respiratory pathogens for 4 days after the administration of a single 500 mg dose [9]. Several comparative [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] clinical studies for treating CAP have been performed in which azithromycin has been administered for 3 days [10][11][12]15,16,19] or 5 days [10,13,14,17,18,20]. Despite the advantages of azithromycin, its role in CAP is unclear and so in this study we compared the efficacy and safety of 3 days treatment with azithromycin with conventional therapy used by the primary physician for treating CAP.…”