The effect of low-dose longterm erythromycin on bronchietasis.

Abstract

Background: Bronchiectasis is characterized by chronic sputum production and complications such as hemoptysis and repeated infections. Even though some patients are cured by surgical resection of bronchiectatic lesions, most bronchiectasis patients can not be treated surgically because of multiple site involvement, and they are treated by medical measures such as postura1 drainage and antibiotics when indicated. Recently there have been some reports that low-dose longterm erythromycin treatment is effective on bronchiectsis, and it is well known that low-dose longterm erythromycin treatment is the treatment of choice in diffuse panbronchiolitis which is characterized by chronic sputum production and dyspnea. To evaluate the efficacy of erythromycin, we tried erythromycin on twenty five stable bronchiectasis patients for more than six months. Methods: We tried erythromycin 250 mg b.i.d. for more than 6 months. We checked respiratory symptoms, chest PA, spirometry, and side effects before treatment and after 3 and 6 months of treatment. Results: 1) 32% of the patients showed marked improvement of symptoms and PFT. 32% showed slight improvement of symptoms with little change of PFT, and 36% showed no change of symptoms and signs. 2) Analysis of the patients showing marked improvement revealed that most of them had diffuse bronchiectasis and paranasal sinus involvement. Conclusion: These results suggest that low-dose longterm erythromycin treatment can be tried on diffuse bronchiectasis patients with sinus involvement. And further studies will be followed on the mechanism of erythromycin in bronchiectasis.