Abstract
A modified pharyngeal tonsillitis scoring system was established for adult patients diagnosed with severe acute epipharyngitis. The patients were treated with 600 mg/day cefditoren pivoxil (t.i.d., CDTR-P high dose) and their clinical courses were monitored using the scoring system. This study enrolled 94 patients with severe acute epipharyngitis who visited the clinic in 2008. The 7-day course of high-dose CDTR-PI resulted in improvement of the severity score on day 8 to 0.23 ± 0.74 (mean ± S.D.) in 93 of the 94 patients (99 %). Adverse drug reactions included diarrhea, which occurred in 13 patients (14 %), however, there were no serious adverse drug reactions. A total of 118 bacterial strains were detected, including 9 strains of β-hemolytic streptococci (8 %), 38 strains of H. influenzae (32 %), 36 strains of H. parainfluenzae (31%), and 23 strains of M. catarrhalis (19 %). The MIC90 of CDTR was as low as 0.5 μg/ml or less for all of these strains. In conclusion, severe acute epipharyngitis is a disease with a favorable prognosis that can be treated successfully with high-dose CDTR-PI.
