[Clinical evaluation of the efficacy of cefmetazole in respiratory tract infections of patients with underlying respiratory diseases].

Respiratory infections of 10 subjects with underlying respiratory diseases were treated with cefmetazole (CMZ) and its clinical effects were studied. Five subjects of them were respiratory tract infection, 3 subjects were pneumonia and 2 subjects were pneumonia followed by empyema. The underlying diseases were chronic pulmonary emphysema in 4 subjects, diffuse panbronchiolitis in 3, chronic bronchitis in 2 and bronchial asthma in 1. The doses of CMZ were 4 to 8 grams per day and the durations of administration ranged 3 to 39 days. The clinical effects were judged from the changes of fever, cough, amount of sputum, dyspnea, rale, chest X-ray, white blood cell counts, erythrocyte sedimentation rates, sputum culture and PaO2. The clinical effects of 6 subjects were evaluated as good, those of 3 were fair and that of 1 was poor. In 3 subjects H. influenzae in the sputum was eliminated and in 1 subject both H. aphrophilus and alpha-Streptococcus found in the pleural effusion were eliminated. In 1 subject Klebsiella in the sputum was eliminated and replaced by Enterobacter. No side effects were observed. We conclude that CMZ is considerably useful in the treatment of respiratory infections of the patients with underlying respiratory diseases.