Effectiveness and safety of azithromycin in the treatment of bronchial asthma: a meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of azithromycin in treatment of bronchial asthma.

METHODS: Reports of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) describing azithromycin for treatment of asthma published before December 2013 were searched in CNKI, WANFANG, PubMed and Medline databases. The data of the included RCTs were extracted and the data quality was evaluated by two assessors independently. Meta-analyses were performed with Revman 5.1 software.

RESULTS: Eight RCTs were identified. Meta-analysis of the data showed that compared with the control group, azithromycin treatment significantly improved the patients' PEF (WMD=0.15, 95%CI=0.06-0.24, P=0.001), scores of asthma control test (ACT) (WMD=1.59, 95%CI=0.95-2.23, P<0.00001), and FEV1% (WMD=1.44, 95%CI=0.40-2.49, P=0.007), but the improvement of FEV1% was observed only in Chinese patients (WMD=1.48, 95%CI=0.40-2.57, P=0.007). The scores of asthma control questionnaire (WMD=0.07, 95%CI=-0.11-0.25, P=0.45) or asthma quality of life questionnaire (WMD=-0.06, 95%CI=-0.42-0.31, P=0.77) were not affected by azithromycin. No severe adverse events were reported in these included studies.

CONCLUSION: Azithromycin for asthma treatment can improve PEF, ACT and FEV1% (in Chinese patients only) but shows no significant effect on the quality of life of the patients. Azithromycin is well tolerated and may therefore be beneficial as adjuvant therapy for asthma.