COMPARATIVE TEST OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CEPHRADINE AND CEPHALEXIN ON PNEUMONIA BY DOUBLE BLIND METHOD

Abstract

For the purpose to compare the curative effect and side effect of cephradine (CED) with those of cephalexin (CEX), the comparative experiments have been carried out by means of a double blind method upon the patients of bacterial pneumonia in 14 institutions throughout the country. CED and CEX were administered orally for 2 weeks respectively at a daily dose of 2 g, and both subjective and objective symptoms were observed extremely in detail as well as various examinations were performed equally. The judgement of clinical effect was made by a physician in charge, and by a small committee composed of several physicians simultaneously. This committee read the chest X-ray films of all cases following a certain standard, and the judgement of severity and effect was made on every case equally. Then the envelope of drug allotment table was opened, and the comparison was made on the homogeneity of back ground factors of patients as well as the severity for both groups of drug administration, and the curative effect and side effect were determined statistically.
Among 117 cases of drug administration (58 cases of CED and 59 cases of CEX), 1 case of CED-ABPC combination was excluded from the object. No significant difference was observed between two groups of drug administration on the composition of age and sex, no significant difference was noticed between two groups on each symptom before the treatment. The effect judged by physician in charge revealed : excellent 9 : 11 (CED : CEX applied to following), good 35 : 35, fair 1 : 3, poor 5 : 5, worsened 2 : 1 and undecided 5 : 4, showing thus no significant difference between two groups. Side effect demonstrated rise of GOT and GPT 2 : 2, eruption 2 : 1 and gastrointestinal disorders 3 : 2, recognizing thus no significant difference between two groups.
The small committee omitted 27 cases of CED and 22 cases of CEX to compare strictly the drug effect against pneumonia. As for the adopted 31 cases of CED and 37 cases of CEX, no significant difference was observed between two groups on a classification of sex, while on a composition of age, a significant difference was noticed as CEX group included more aged over 60 years. No significant difference was observed between two groups on each symptom before the treatment, and yet on the judgement of severity, severe cases were rather more in CED group while mild cases were rather more in CEX group, though this means no significant difference. The clinical effects obtained were excellent 4 : 2, good 21 : 27, fair 4 : 0, poor 2 : 7 and worsened 0 : 1. No significant difference was observed thus there, although rather many excellent cases were obtained in CED group while rather many poor cases in CEX group.
The degrees of improvement of each symptom and finding 3 days, 7 days and 14 days after the start of treatment, were compared between two drugs and no significant difference was observed there.