Dr Thomas Marrie and Christine Malcolm of the University of Alberta's School of Medicine have just had their findings published in the Archives of Internal Medicine (April 14 2003) following their study of 768 patients in the Edmonton Area between November 2000 and April 2001.
CAP is a common disease in North America that is caused by a bacterial infection and can lead to serious illness and death, according to the article.
In about 50 percent of cases of CAP, the exact cause is unidentified, making prescribing the right antibiotic difficult. Choosing the right antibiotic to prescribe is difficult because of the possibility of multidrug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae (the bacteria that causes CAP), and the fact that choosing a broad-spectrum antibiotic or misusing a specific antibiotic can result in antibiotic resistance or even death.
In the papers researcher say little attention has been paid to the factors that influence the choice of antibiotic therapy for patients who walk into an emergency department setting. There are Canadian guidelines for the management of pneumonia although they are not based on data from random clinical trials.
Marrie and Malcolm found that use of a fluorquinoline (levofloxacin) was not indicated according to Canadian guidelines 50 percent of the time that it was prescribed. One third of patients studied received levofloxacin.
Journal
Annals of Internal Medicine