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Impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Analysis of institutional authors

Garcia Puig, JuanAuthor

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Clarithromycin vs combined cefuroxime and erythromycin in the treatment of hospitalised community-acquired pneumonia patients - Intravenous followed by oral therapy

Publicated to:CLINICAL DRUG INVESTIGATION. 14 (6): 439-449 - 1997-01-01 14(6), DOI: 10.2165/00044011-199714060-00001

Authors: Vetter N; Stamler D; O'Neill S; Rafferty P; Praz G; Duran Cantolla J; Pongratz-Roger M; Aigner K; Bolitschek J; Garcia Puig J; Afilalo M; Small D; Winter J

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Abstract

This study compared intravenous followed by oral clarithromycin (500 mg twice daily; manufactured by Abbott Laboratories) with intravenous followed by oral erythromycin and cefuroxime (1 g erythromycin three times daily, 1.5 g cefuroxime three times daily intravenously, 500 mg erythromycin, 500 mg cefuroxime axetil orally) in the treatment of patients admitted to hospital with community-acquired pneumonia in 21 centres in Europe and Canada. 235 patients were enrolled for the study, of whom 169 (88 clarithromycin and 81 erythromycin/ cefuroxime) were clinically evaluable and 47 (24 clarithromycin and 23 erythromycin/cefuroxime) were bacteriologically evaluable. All clinically evaluable patients received intravenous therapy for between 2 and 5 days. No significant differences between the treatment groups were seen regarding age, underlying disease, extent of chest x-ray shadowing and other indices of severity of pneumonia. A satisfactory clinical response was observed in 91 and 88% of clinically evaluable patients and 71 and 66% of all patients (intent-to-treat analysis) in the clarithromycin and erythromycin/cefuroxime groups, respectively, and similar bacterial cure rates were obtained (67 and 70%, respectively). There were no significant differences in the clinical and bacterial response rates between the two treatment groups. There was a significantly greater number of patients experiencing drug-related adverse events in the erythromycin/cefuroxime group (65%) than in the clarithromycin group (49%; p = 0.018), with significantly less nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain occurring in the clarithromycin group. We concluded that clarithromycin is a suitable monotherapy for patients with community-acquired pneumonia who require intravenous treatment, and is associated with significantly fewer adverse effects than the combination of erythromycin and cefurxime.

Keywords

Ciências biológicas iiiFarmaciaGeneral medicineMedicina iMedicina iiMedicina iiiMedicine (miscellaneous)Pharmacology & pharmacyPharmacology (medical)Saúde coletiva

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal CLINICAL DRUG INVESTIGATION due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 1997, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q2 (Segundo Cuartil), in the category . Notably, the journal is positioned en el Cuartil Q3 for the agency WoS (JCR) in the category Pharmacology & Pharmacy.

Independientemente del impacto esperado determinado por el canal de difusión, es importante destacar el impacto real observado de la propia aportación.

Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2025-06-04:

  • WoS: 5
  • Scopus: 8
  • OpenCitations: 1

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-06-04:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 4.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 4 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 6.

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
Continuing with the social impact of the work, it is important to emphasize that, due to its content, it can be assigned to the area of interest of ODS 3 - Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, with a probability of 75% according to the mBERT algorithm developed by Aurora University.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Austria; Canada; Switzerland; United Kingdom; United States of America.