• Jie Ke and Xiqing Tu.
• Department of Pediatrics, Huoqiu First People's Hospital, Lu'an, Anhui, China.
• Brit J Hosp Med. 2025 Jan 24; 86 (1): 1111-11.

AbstractAims/Background Lobar pneumonia is an acute inflammation with increasing incidence globally. Delayed treatment can lead to severe complications, posing life-threatening risks. Thus, it is crucial to determine effective treatment methods to improve the prognosis of children with lobar pneumonia. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the clinical efficacy of pidotimod-assisted erythromycin in treating lobar pneumonia in children over 3 years old. Methods This study included 108 children with lobar pneumonia admitted to the Huoqiu First People's Hospital, China, between March 2021 and March 2024. However, 6 children (4 cases with missing clinical data, 1 with autoimmune disease, and 1 with asthma) who did not meet the predetermined inclusion criteria were excluded. Based on the treatment methods, the children were divided into a control group (n = 52, children receiving erythromycin treatment) and an observation group (n = 50, children receiving pidotimod-assisted erythromycin treatment). Furthermore, the clinical efficacy, clinical signs, resolution time of symptoms, cellular immune function, and incidence of adverse reactions were retrospectively evaluated. Results The control group exhibited significantly lower treatment efficiency than the observation group (80.77% vs 94.00%; p < 0.05). Furthermore, the observation group showed better alleviating fever, cough, tachypnea, and pulmonary moist rales (p < 0.001). The CD3+, CD4+, and CD4+/CD8+ levels were comparable in both groups before treatment (p > 0.05). However, 7 days after treatment, the CD3+, CD4+, and CD4+/CD8+ levels increased significantly in the observation group compared to the control group (p < 0.001). Additionally, there was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions in both groups (p > 0.05). Conclusion Pidotimod-assisted erythromycin treatment can significantly improve the treatment efficiency in children with lobar pneumonia, improving clinical signs and symptoms and enhancing the cellular immune function without increasing the risk of adverse drug reactions.

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