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Multicenter Study
. 2019 Apr:81:184-190.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2019.01.041. Epub 2019 Jan 25.

Macrolides in critically ill patients with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome

Yaseen M Arabi  1 , Ahmad M Deeb  2 , Fahad Al-Hameed  3 , Yasser Mandourah  4 , Ghaleb A Almekhlafi  5 , Anees A Sindi  6 , Awad Al-Omari  7 , Sarah Shalhoub  8 , Ahmed Mady  9 , Basem Alraddadi  10 , Abdullah Almotairi  11 , Kasim Al Khatib  12 , Ahmed Abdulmomen  13 , Ismael Qushmaq  14 , Othman Solaiman  15 , Abdulsalam M Al-Aithan  16 , Rajaa Al-Raddadi  17 , Ahmad Ragab  18 , Abdulrahman Al Harthy  19 , Ayman Kharaba  20 , Jesna Jose  21 , Tarek Dabbagh  22 , Robert A Fowler  23 , Hanan H Balkhy  24 , Laura Merson  25 , Frederick G Hayden  26 ; Saudi Critical Care Trials group
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Macrolides in critically ill patients with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome

Yaseen M Arabi et al. Int J Infect Dis. 2019 Apr.

Abstract

Objectives: Macrolides 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.

Methods: This 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.

Results: Of 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).

Conclusions: These findings indicate that macrolide therapy is not associated with a reduction in 90-day mortality or improvement in MERS-CoV RNA clearance.

Keywords: Azithromycin; Critical care; Influenza; MERS-CoV; Macrolides; Pneumonia.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Time to initiation of macrolide therapy from ICU admission among critically ill patients with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). Day 0 includes patients who were already on macrolides therapy before being admitted to ICU. There were 11 patients who recieved two macrolides at different times during the study period, and one patient with missing data regarding the date of macrolide therapy.
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