Clinical efficacy and prognosis analysis of different treatment regimens in patients with uncomplicated brucellosis / 中华传染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To analyze the efficacy and prognosis of different treatment regimens in patients with uncomplicated brucellosis, and to provide guidance for clinical treatment.Methods:The patients diagnosed with brucellosis in the Sixth People′s Hospital of Shenyang from September 2014 to June 2019 were enrolled. The clinical data of patients with uncomplicated brucellosis were collected. The two most frequent treatment regimens were screened, after conducting propensity score matching with 1∶4, and the clinical characteristics, prognosis, and adverse reactions in patients with two regimens were retrospectively analyzed. The primary outcome was clinical cure. The secondary outcomes were disease progression and relapse. Statistical analysis was performed using chi-square test, Wilcoxon rank sum test and log-rank method.Results:A total of 1 570 patients clinically diagnosed with brucellosis were included, and 939(59.8%) showed uncomplicated infection. There were 608(38.7%) patients who received doxycycline and rifampicin treatment, and 65(4.1%) received doxycycline and levofloxacin treatment. By propensity score matching, 223 patients (DR group) who used doxycycline and rifampicin were included, while 65 patients (DL group) who used doxycycline and levofloxacin were included. The cure rate, progression rate, symptom persistence rate and recurrence rate of DR group were 94.6%(211/223), 1.8%(4/223), 2.2%(5/223) and 1.3%(3/223), respectively. In DL group, those were 95.4%(62/65), 3.1%(2/65), 1.5%(1/65) and 0(0/65), respectively. And there was no significant difference between the two groups ( χ2=0.18, P=0.632). No significant difference of symptom durations between the two groups was observed (29.0(28.0, 30.0) d vs 28.0(26.1, 29.9) d, hazard ratio ( HR)=0.966, 95% confidence interval ( CI) 0.723 to 1.290, χ2=1.01, P=0.315), while treatment course of DR group was statistically longer than DL group (90.0(84.1, 95.9) d vs 44.0(37.3, 50.7) d, HR=0.489, 95% CI 0.361 to 0.662, χ2=14.18, P<0.001). Procalcitonin (0.02(0.02, 0.05) μg/L and 0.02(0.02, 0.04) μg/L) and C-reactive protein (8(3, 17) mg/L and 18(7, 55) mg/L) levels in DR group and DL group had decreased significantly after treatment than before treatment (0.09(0.04, 0.16) μg/L and 0.19(0.08, 0.25) μg/L, 106(19, 274) mg/L and 255(50, 494) mg/L), and the differences were statistically significant ( W=2.55, 2.04, 3.66 and 2.19, respectively, all P<0.05). The adverse reaction (ADR) rate in DR group was 4.2%(8/191), and five patients showed liver function injury. The ADR rate in DL group was 2.0%(1/51), which showed liver function injury. There was no significant difference of ADR between the two groups ( P>0.05). Conclusions:Doxycycline combined with rifampicin and doxycycline combined with levofloxacin have similar efficacy and adverse reaction rates for treating uncomplicated brucellosis.