ABSTRACT
In addition to its antimicrobial activity, macrolides have an immunomodulatory effect that may be beneficial to patients with asthma. This quasi-experimental study aimed to determine the effect of intravenous clarithromycin followed by oral administration in 37 patients with acute exacerbations asthma caused by respiratory tract infection during January - December 2005. Patients with mild to moderate exacerbations of asthma with respiratory tract infection meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria were given intravenous clarithromycin 2 x 500 mg/day for not more than 5 days and followed by oral clarithromycin 2 x 500 mg/day for 7 days. Outcome variables were improvement of clinical symptoms according to the asthma exacerbation score and peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR). After 10 days, treatment resulted significant improvement in total asthma exacerbation score and morning PEFR in 35 patients enrolled this project. Based on clinical improvement and laboratory findings, the number of days required for intravenous clarithromycin was less then 3 days for 21 subjects, 3-5 days in 14 subjects. The most common causative pathogens were S. β-haemolyticus and Streptococcus sp. It was concluded that clarithromycin improved clinical symptoms and PEFR in exacerbation of asthma caused by respiratory tract infection.
Subject(s)
Respiratory Tract Infections , Asthma , Anti-Asthmatic AgentsABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to assess asthma prevalence in children between 13-14 years of age in East Jakarta. This study is a cross sectional study which surveyed 2234 high school students between the ages of 13 and 14 years in East Jakarta in 2001 using the ISAAC questionnaire. Bronchial challenge test was applied by using methacholine substance to 186 students. Reports based on the ISAAC questionnaire indicate that 7.2% of teenage have had wheezing experience, 4.1% have wheezing within the last 12 months, 1.8% have ever suffered severe asthma attack within the last 12 months, 3.3% have suffered wheezing after exercise, and 6.3% have got night cough while they were not suffering from cold. Prevalence of atopy diseases such as rhinitis and eczema were 14.2% and 3.9%, meanwhile rhinitis and eczema prevalence within the last 12 months according to this study were 10.6% and 2.9% respectively. Statistically, there is a significant correlation between wheezing symptom and atopy (p < 0.05). From indepth questionnaire, a significant value of kappa 0.84 related with wheezing within the last 12 months was found. Bronchial challenge test results indicate that sensitivity was 90%, specificity 83.58%, positive predictive value 68.12% and negative predictive value was 95.73%. Asthma prevalence in East Jakarta at 2001 based on ISAAC questionnaire was 8.9%, and cumulative prevalence 11.5%. The ISAAC questionnaire can be used to study asthma prevalence in children at multicenter in Indonesia.