Review article

Azithromycin and Chronic Respiratory Diseases

Neven Tudorić

Abstract

Soon after it was introduced in everyday clinical practice, azithromycin became widely used for the treatment of a number of bacterial infections, especially those affecting the respiratory tract. Over time, a growing body of research found that macrolides exert significant immunomodulatory effects, thus significantly expanding indications for azithromycin, a macrolide antibiotic with numerous advantages over the other antibiotics from its class. As opposed to short-term use of azithromycin as an antimicrobial agent, its immunomodulatory effect is presented only after long-term use over a course of several months. This paper briefly addresses the use of azithromycin in patients with chronic respiratory diseases where the effects of the drug are based on its immunomodulatory effects.

Keywords

azithromycin; respiratory tract; bacterial infections; immunomodulatory effect; chronic respiratory diseases

Hrčak ID:

214610

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/214610

Publication date:

31.10.2018.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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