PCD Management
In this study, routine therapies used to treat PCD patients included long-term AZM administration, airway clearance (daily chest physiotherapy), inhaled hyperosmolar agents, and corticosteroids. Treatment during acute infection included antibiotics, with AZM administered most often, followed by ceftriaxone, ceftazidime, cefoperazone sodium, sulbactam sodium, and meropenem. PCD patients presenting with wheezing as the major symptom were also treated with intravenous or oral corticosteroids.
Treatment management details of 63 patients are shown in Table 2. Although long-term oral AZM was recommended for 90% of patients with definite PCD diagnosis, only about 50% of patients were able to adhere to long-term oral AZM administration, of which 46% complied with recommended airway clearance physiotherapy.
Ultimately, the average duration of oral AZM treatment was 14 months (range 0.5 to 29 months). Notably, in the total of follow-up patients, 30 (48%) of patients continually took AZM for longer than 3 months, including 8 patients who took AZM for 3-6 months and 22 patients for more than 6 months. The remaining 33 (52%) patients who either did not regularly take AZM or took AZM for less than 3 months were assigned in the AZM-untreated group included, including 22 patients who did not take AZM, 4 patients who regularly took AZM for 2 weeks, 4 patients who took AZM for 1 month, and 2 patients who took AZM for two months. Aside from AZM treatment, there were no significant differences in other treatment measures between the two groups (Table 2).
In the AZM-treated group, 3 patients experienced transient nausea and abdominal pain that ceased after oral AZM administration timing was changed. No other serious adverse reactions were observed. Moreover, testing at intervals during follow-up revealed that no patients suffered from leucopenia or neutropenia, and no patients had abnormal alanine transaminase levels, or abnormal electrocardiogram findings.