1. Antibiotic Treatment of Severe Exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease with Procalcitonin: A Randomized Noninferiority Trial
- Author
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Alessia Verduri, Fabrizio Luppi, Roberto D'Amico, Sara Balduzzi, Roberto Vicini, Anna Liverani, Valentina Ruggieri, Mario Plebani, Maria Pia Foschino Barbaro, Antonio Spanevello, Giorgio Walter Canonica, Alberto Papi, Leonardo Michele Fabbri, Bianca Beghè, FARM58J2XH Study Group, Verduri, A, Luppi, F, D'Amico, R, Balduzzi, S, Vicini, R, Liverani, A, Ruggieri, V, Plebani, M, Barbaro, M, Spanevello, A, Canonica, G, Papi, A, Fabbri, L, and Beghè, B
- Subjects
Genetics and Molecular Biology (all) ,Male ,Protein Precursor ,Antibiotics ,lcsh:Medicine ,Biochemistry ,Procalcitonin ,Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ,Respiratory Tract Infection ,Prospective Studies ,lcsh:Science ,Aged ,Anti-Bacterial Agents ,Bacterial Infections ,Biomarkers ,Calcitonin ,Drug Administration Schedule ,Drug Monitoring ,Female ,Humans ,Italy ,Protein Precursors ,Respiratory Tract Infections ,Treatment Outcome ,Agricultural and Biological Sciences (all) ,Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (all) ,Medicine (all) ,COPD ,Multidisciplinary ,Respiratory tract infections ,Biomarker (medicine) ,medicine.symptom ,hormones, hormone substitutes, and hormone antagonists ,Human ,Research Article ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Chronic Obstructive ,medicine.drug_class ,Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide ,Socio-culturale ,Bacterial Infection ,Pulmonary Disease ,Anti-Bacterial Agent ,parasitic diseases ,medicine ,Intensive care medicine ,business.industry ,lcsh:R ,Biomarker ,bacterial infections and mycoses ,medicine.disease ,Pneumonia ,Prospective Studie ,Respiratory failure ,Sputum ,lcsh:Q ,business - Abstract
The duration of antibiotic treatment of exacerbations of COPD (ECOPD) is controversial. Serum procalcitonin (PCT) is a biomarker of bacterial infection used to identify the cause of ECOPD. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We investigated whether a PCT-guided plan would allow a shorter duration of antibiotic treatment in patients with severe ECOPD. For this multicenter, randomized, non-inferiority trial, we enrolled 184 patients hospitalized with ECOPD from 18 hospitals in Italy. Patients were assigned to receive antibiotics for 10 days (standard group) or for either 3 or 10 days (PCT group). The primary outcome was the rate of ECOPD at 6 months. Having planned to recruit 400 patients, we randomized only 183: 93 in the PCT group and 90 in the standard group. Thus, the completed study was underpowered. The ECOPD rate at 6 months between PCT-guided and standard antibiotic treatment was not significant (% difference, 4.04; 90% confidence interval [CI], -7.23 to 15.31), but the CI included the non-inferiority margin of 15. In the PCT-guided group, about 50% of patients were treated for 3 days, and there was no difference in primary or secondary outcomes compared to patients treated for 10 days. CONCLUSIONS: Although the primary and secondary clinical outcomes were no different for patients treated for 3 or 10 days in the PCT group, the conclusion that antibiotics can be safely stopped after 3 days in patients with low serum PCT cannot be substantiated statistically. Thus, the results of this study are inconclusive regarding the noninferiority of the PCT-guided plan compared to the standard antibiotic treatment. The study was funded by Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA-FARM58J2XH). Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01125098). TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01125098. journal.pone.0118241 Background The duration of antibiotic treatment of exacerbations of COPD (ECOPD) is controversial. Serum procalcitonin (PCT) is a biomarker of bacterial infection used to identify the cause of ECOPD. Methods and Findings We investigated whether a PCT-guided plan would allow a shorter duration of antibiotic treatment in patients with severe ECOPD. For this multicenter, randomized, non-inferiority trial, we enrolled 184 patients hospitalized with ECOPD from 18 hospitals in Italy. Patients were assigned to receive antibiotics for 10 days (standard group) or for either 3 or 10 days (PCT group). The primary outcome was the rate of ECOPD at 6 months. Having planned to recruit 400 patients, we randomized only 183: 93 in the PCT group and 90 in the standard group. Thus, the completed study was underpowered. The ECOPD rate at 6 months between PCT-guided and standard antibiotic treatment was not significant (% difference, 4.04; 90% confidence interval [CI], -7.23 to 15.31), but the CI included the non-inferiority margin of 15. In the PCT-guided group, about 50% of patients were treated for 3 days, and there was no difference in primary or secondary outcomes compared to patients treated for 10 days. Conclusions Although the primary and secondary clinical outcomes were no different for patients treated for 3 or 10 days in the PCT group, the conclusion that antibiotics can be safely stopped after 3 days in patients with low serum PCT cannot be substantiated statistically. Thus, the results of this study are inconclusive regarding the noninferiority of the PCT-guided plan compared to the standard antibiotic treatment. The study was funded by Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA-FARM58J2XH). Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01125098).
- Published
- 2015