Results
Fifty-seven patients with CF (M/F 22/35) were recruited; their mean age (±DS) was 18.56 ± 8.7 years for females and 18.57 ± 8.5 years for males. PPaa patients were 28/57 with a median age of 11,23 ± 3.95 years, and adult patients were 29/57 with a median age of 25,65 ± 5.01 years. The majority of the population was pancreatic insufficient and ΔF508 homozygous. Pseudomonas colonization was present in 44% of patients and 17% of population were treated by CFTR modulators. The demographic and anthropometric characteristics of the entire study population are shown in Table 1.
Considering respiratory function at baseline, population had a moderate impairment with median FEV1% of 73.48 (±21,19) and median LCI 2.5 of 12.85 (±3.86) as shown in Table 2. Modification after antibiotic IV therapy was statistically significative for FEV1% (p=0.000), FVC% (p=0.000) and for LCI 2.5 (p=0.001) and LCI5 (p=0.030). No differences were found for Sacin (p=0.33) and Scond (p=0.38).
FEV1% variation post antibiotic IV treatment was + 7.30%, FVC % variation was + 5.46%. An improvement of LCI2.5 was found in 37/57 patients (-6.99%), while in 20/57 it remained stable or worsened. Among the total of study population, 4/57 patients showed a deterioration > 15% in LCI after antibiotic therapy.
All differences in the measured pre and post antibiotic IV therapy respiratory parameters are shown in Table 2.
TABLE 1 Demographic and clinical characteristics of the study population