• Yaseen M Arabi, Ahmad M Deeb, Fahad Al-Hameed, Yasser Mandourah, Ghaleb A Almekhlafi, Anees A Sindi, Awad Al-Omari, Sarah Shalhoub, Ahmed Mady, Basem Alraddadi, Abdullah Almotairi, Kasim Al Khatib, Ahmed Abdulmomen, Ismael Qushmaq, Othman Solaiman, Abdulsalam M Al-Aithan, Rajaa Al-Raddadi, Ahmad Ragab, Abdulrahman Al Harthy, Ayman Kharaba, Jesna Jose, Tarek Dabbagh, Robert A Fowler, Hanan H Balkhy, Laura Merson, Frederick G Hayden, and Saudi Critical Care Trials group.
• College of Medicine, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Intensive Care Department, Ministry of the National Guard - Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: arabi@ngha.med.sa.
• Int. J. Infect. Dis. 2019 Apr 1; 81: 184-190.

ObjectivesMacrolides have been reported to be associated with improved outcomes in patients with viral pneumonia related to influenza and other viruses, possibly because of their immune-modulatory effects. Macrolides have frequently been used in patients with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). This study investigated the association of macrolides with 90-day mortality and MERS coronavirus (CoV) RNA clearance in critically ill patients with MERS.MethodsThis retrospective analysis of a multicenter cohort database included 14 tertiary-care hospitals in five cities in Saudi Arabia. Multivariate logistic-regression analysis was used to determine the association of macrolide therapy with 90-day mortality, and the Cox-proportional hazard model to determine the association of macrolide therapy with MERS-CoV RNA clearance.ResultsOf 349 critically ill MERS patients, 136 (39%) received macrolide therapy. Azithromycin was most commonly used (97/136; 71.3%). Macrolide therapy was commonly started before the patient arrived in the intensive care unit (ICU) (51/136; 37.5%), or on day1 in ICU (53/136; 39%). On admission to ICU, the baseline characteristics of patients who received and did not receive macrolides were similar, including demographic data and sequential organ failure assessment score. However, patients who received macrolides were more likely to be admitted with community-acquired MERS (P=0.02). Macrolide therapy was not independently associated with a significant difference in 90-day mortality (adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 0.84; 95% confidence interval [CI] :0.47-1.51; P=0.56) or MERS-CoV RNA clearance (adjusted HR: 0.88; 95% CI:0.47-1.64; P=0.68).ConclusionsThese findings indicate that macrolide therapy is not associated with a reduction in 90-day mortality or improvement in MERS-CoV RNA clearance.Copyright © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

6 keywords...

hide…