Chest ACCP Career Connection
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

Guest Access | Sign In via User Name/Password
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Free
Right arrow Full Text (PDF) Free
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Article Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (10)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Fogarty, C.
Right arrow Articles by Nusrat, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Fogarty, C.
Right arrow Articles by Nusrat, R.
(Chest. 2005;128:1980-1988.)
© 2005 American College of Chest Physicians

Five-Day Telithromycin Once Daily Is as Effective as 10-Day Clarithromycin Twice Daily for the Treatment of Acute Exacerbations of Chronic Bronchitis and Is Associated With Reduced Health-Care Resource Utilization*

Charles Fogarty, MD; Ronelle de Wet, MB, ChB; Lionel Mandell, MD; Joanne Chang, MD, PhD; Manickam Rangaraju, MD and Roomi Nusrat, MD

* From Spartanburg Pharmaceutical Research (Dr. Fogarty), Spartanburg, SC; 10 NHC Health Centre (Dr. de Wet), Johannesburg, South Africa; McMaster University (Dr. Mandell), Hamilton, ON, Canada; sanofi-aventis (Drs. Chang and Nusrat), Bridgewater, NJ; and sanofi-aventis (Dr. Rangaraju), Romainville, France.

Correspondence to: Charles Fogarty, MD, Spartanburg Pharmaceutical Research, 126 Dillon St, Spartanburg, SC 29307; e-mail: cmf{at}bonetesting.com

Study objectives: To demonstrate equivalence in the clinical efficacy of telithromycin vs clarithromycin treatment of outpatients with acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis (AECB), and to compare the tolerability and respiratory-related health-care resource utilization associated with these treatment regimens.

Design and patients: A randomized, double-blind, multicenter, clinical study was conducted at 105 centers in 14 countries. Adult outpatients (age ≥ 30 years) received oral telithromycin, 800 mg qd for 5 days (n = 270), or oral clarithromycin, 500 mg bid for 10 days (n = 282), for the treatment of AECB. Clinical and bacteriologic outcomes were assessed at the posttherapy/test-of-cure (TOC) visit (days 17 to 24; per-protocol population). Health-care resource utilization data were collected for each patient by investigators blinded to study medication up to the late posttherapy visit (days 31 to 36).

Results: Clinical cure rates at the posttherapy/TOC visit were comparable between the groups (telithromycin, 193 of 225 patients [85.8%]; clarithromycin, 206 of 231 patients [89.2%]); bacteriologic outcome was satisfactory for 59 of 72 telithromycin-treated patients (81.9%) vs 63 of 76 clarithromycin-treated patients (82.9%). Health-care resource utilization assessed up to the late posttherapy visit was lower in the telithromycin treatment group than the clarithromycin treatment group, with significantly fewer hospitalizations for respiratory-related causes (one hospitalization vs eight hospitalizations for a total of 4 inpatient days vs 39 inpatient days, respectively), significantly fewer AECB-related emergency department visits (0 vs 8), and fewer unscheduled outpatient visits (11 vs 18). Fewer telithromycin-treated patients reported days lost from work (21 of 91 patients [23.1%]; 133 days) compared with those receiving clarithromycin (30 of 98 patients [30.6%]; 141 days). Telithromycin was well tolerated; adverse events considered possibly related to study medication were reported by 61 of 269 patients (22.7%) and 100 of 280 patients (35.7%) receiving telithromycin and clarithromycin, respectively.

Conclusions: In this study, 5-day telithromycin treatment was as effective and well tolerated as 10-day clarithromycin treatment for patients with AECB, and was associated with a reduced utilization of health-care resources.

Key Words: acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis • clarithromycin • health-care utilization • ketolide • telithromycin






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2005 by the American College of Chest Physicians.