[Clinical evaluation of josamycin for the treatment of Mycoplasma pneumonia in children].

Thirty-one strains of Mycoplasma pneumoniae were tested for drug sensitivity to both josamycin (JM) and erythromycin (EM), to evaluate the efficacy of JM for mycoplasmal pneumonia in children. In addition to the sensitivity tests of 31 M. pneumoniae strains against JM and EM, 50 patients, between the ages of 3 years 1 month and 13 years 3 months, suspected of suffering from mycoplasmal pneumonia were treated with 50 or 200 mg JM tablets at an average daily dose of 43.1 mg/kg t.i.d. or b.i.d. for an average period of 14 days; an additional 31 patients between the ages of 2 years 9 months and 11 years, suspected of suffering from this disease were treated with tablet or dry syrup of EM, with the exception of EM estolate, t.i.d. or b.i.d. at an average daily dose of 72.5 mg/kg for an average period of 15 days. Patients were selected in 37 and 22 mycoplasmal pneumonic patients respectively for JM and EM. Clinical and bacteriological effects, efficacy and side effects of the drugs on this disease were studied and the following results were obtained. Drug sensitivity test Of all 31 strains tested for JM sensitivity the populations which exhibited 0.125 mcg/ml were most abundant (18/31, 58.1%) and MIC pattern of all strains were distributed from 0.0313 to 0.125 mcg/ml. In the EM group, 61.3% (19/31) of the populations were sensitive at 0.015 mcg/ml, exhibiting the dominant distribution pattern and MIC range of all organism varied from 0.0078 to 0.0313 mcg/ml. Resistant strains were found to neither JM nor EM. EM was approximately 2 to 10 times more active than JM in MIC evaluation. Clinical effects of JM by daily doses Clinical effects relative to the daily dose were evaluated in 3, 7, 10 days after administration of drugs. The response was favorable, according to assessments of the attending doctors, in 96.7, 100% and 95.8% of the patient group given JM in a daily dose of 40-49 mg/kg, the group to which the largest number of patients belonged. Similar favorable results were obtained by the assessments of Evaluation Committee, showing 86.7, 96.7% and 100% of favorable response. Upon comparison, in the same interval, of these results with those of the groups given EM in a daily dose of 50 mg/kg, the group in which the largest number of patients were seen, there was no significant difference in the assessments either of the attending doctors or of the Evaluation Committee.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)