Table 2.
Comparison of antibiotic therapy for CAL and HAL.
| CAL | HALa | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Variables | No. (%) of episodes | No. (%) of episodes | p-valueb |
| Initial antibiotic therapy | |||
| Use of an anti-legionella antibioticc | 34 (12.5) | 5 (8.3) | 0.38 |
| Use of >1 antibiotic (± anti-legionella antibiotics) | 54 (19.9) | 20 (33.3) | 0.14 |
| Penicillin monotherapy | 144 (52.9) | 16 (26.7) | <0.001* |
| Anti-legionella antibiotic treatment | |||
| Anti-legionella antibiotic ≤ 24 hoursd | 48 (17.6) | 6 (10.0) | x |
| Anti-legionella antibiotic > 24 hoursd | 201 (73.9) | 42 (70.0) | x |
| No anti-legionella antibiotic during admission | 18 (6.6) | 7 (11.7) | 0.24 |
| Delay of anti-legionella therapy (median and IQR) | |||
| Days from admission | 2 (1-4) | X | x |
| Days from symptom onset | 7 (5-11) | 7 (3-12) | 0.29 |
| Duration of anti-legionella therapy (median and IQR) | |||
| Died in hospital | 7 (2-13) | 6 (2-13) | 0.79 |
| Discharged alive | 21 (14-23) | 20 (13-27) | 0.65 |
| Antibiotics used during admission | |||
| Macrolide monotherapye | 87 (32.0) | 18 (30.0) | 0.97 |
| Fluoroquinolone monotherapyf | 4 (1.5) | 3 (5.0) | 0.07 |
| Macrolide + Rifampicin | 39 (14.3) | 5 (8.3) | 0.26 |
| Fluoroquinolone + Rifampicin | 11 (4.0) | 3 (5.0) | 0.67 |
| Macrolide + Fluoroquinolone | 44 (16.2) | 9 (15.0) | 0.95 |
| Macrolide + Fluoroquinolone + Rifampicin | 67 (24.6) | 15 (25.0) | 0.77 |
| No anti-legionella therapy | 18 (6.6) | 7 (11.7) | 0.18 |
| Oral anti-legionella therapy only | |||
| Yesg | 22 (8.1) | 3 (5.0) | 0.40 |
| No | 247 (90.8) | 57 (95.0) | 0.40 |
a A case was defined as hospital-acquired if the patient had been admitted within the preceding 10 days or if the patient developed
symptoms of legionellosis more than 2 days after hospital admission.
b Differences between the groups were analyzed with χ2 or Fisher's exact test as appropriate for categorical variables.
Continuous variables were compared using two-sample t-test (normal distribution) or Mann-Whitney U-test (non-normal distribution).
c Anti-legionella antibiotics include macrolides, quinolones, rifampicin and tetracyclines.
d For community-acquired cases time from admission. For hospital-acquired cases time from beginning of symptoms.
No comparison between groups for these variables since baseline was defined in different ways.
e The macrolides were either erythromycin, clarithromycin, roxithromycin or azithromycin
with the most commonly used being intravenous erythromycin
f Primarily intravenous ciprofloxacin
g Most commonly used anti-legionella drug adminstered orally was roxithromycin
* P-level < 0.05 is considered statistically significant.
IQR: Interquartile range