Extract
Long-term azithromycin treatment reduced exacerbations in adults with persistent symptomatic asthma in the AMAZES trial (Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR), number 12609000197235) [1]. However, response to treatment was variable between participants and the characteristics of those who experience most clinical benefit have not been determined. The inability to define a specific population who are more responsive limits the ability to personalise this therapy, which is the goal for airways disease management [2]. With recent studies identifying airway Haemophilus influenzae colonisation as a candidate marker for asthma subgrouping [3, 4], we assessed whether H. influenzae abundance, measured using quantitative PCR (qPCR) [5, 6], predicted the ability of azithromycin therapy to reduce the incidence of acute asthma exacerbations.
Footnotes
This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the European Respiratory Journal. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJ online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.
Conflict of interest: Dr. Taylor has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: Dr. Ivey has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: Dr. Gibson reports personal fees from AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, grants from AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, outside the submitted work.
Conflict of interest: Dr. Simpson has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: Dr. Rogers has nothing to disclose.
- Received January 29, 2020.
- Accepted April 24, 2020.
- Copyright ©ERS 2020