What is it about?
Intravenous (IV) antibiotics are important for treating pulmonary exacerbations (i.e. acute worsening of lung health). In this study, we analysed 2013-2014 data from the UK CF registry and found that previous-year IV use is a strong predictor of current-year IV use. Lung function (FEV1) is typically used to indicate the lung health of adults with CF. However, we found a group of adults with high FEV1 (which should indicate good lung health) but still used large amounts of IV (which suggests poor lung health).
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Why is it important?
Our finding could help clinicians to identify people most at risk of future exacerbations. The group of people most at risk should be carefully assessed, to determine whether more effective use of preventative inhaled therapies could help reduce the risk of future exacerbations. More effective use of preventative inhaled therapies will include ensuring that efficacious treatments are being prescribed and also supporting adherence to those treatments.
Perspectives
This study is part of our wider research to better understand adherence and learning how to support self-management among adults with CF. See: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/scharr/sections/dts/ctru/cfhealthhub/index The aim of using preventative inhaled therapies is to reduce the risk of exacerbations. Therefore, understanding the predictors of exacerbations leads to a better understanding of the preventative therapies required by an adult with CF, given his / her clinical characteristics. This leads on to the concept of ‘normative adherence’ (see: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27284242), which is used as one of the outcome measures in our multi-centre randomised control trial (ISRCTN55504164).
Zhe Hui Hoo
University of Sheffield
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Rescue therapy within the UK Cystic Fibrosis Registry: An exploration of predictors of intravenous antibiotic use amongst adults with CF, Respirology, September 2017, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/resp.13174.
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