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 Original Articles |
| The Comparison of Clinical Efficacy between Azithromycin and Erythromycin Against Lower Respiratory Tract Infections |
| young Kyoon Kim, Yang Ree Kim, Dong Soo Lee, Hui Jung Kim, So Hyang Song, Moon Won Kang, Sung Hak Park |
| Department of Internal Medicine, Catholic University Medical College, Seoul, Korea |
Vol.13 Num.2 (p158~164)
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Azithromycin is a 15-membered ring macrolide derivative, azalide, and has characteristics of high tissue concentrations and prolonged terminal half-life. It was developed to compensate the weak point of erythromycin and to expand the antimicrobial spectrum. We compared once-daily azithromycin(500 mg daily for 3 days) to erythromycin(500 mg twice a day for 10 days) in the treatment of lower respiratory tract infections.
Of total 18 patients in azithromycin group, 16(88.9%) resulted in clinical cure or improvement with 57.1% bacteriologic eradication. Of 20 patients in erythromycin group, 15(75%) showed clinical cure or improvement with 50% bacteriologic eradication.
There is no statistical differences of clinical response and bacteriologic eradication between two groups(p>0.05). Azithromycin was well tolerated, but 1 patient in erythromycin group experienced severe nausea.
This study shows that 3-day course of once-daily azithromycin is as effective as 10-day twice daily of erythromycin in the treatment of patients with lower respiratory tract infection.
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Keywords : Azithromycin, Erythromycin, Lower respiratory tract |
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