TY - JOUR T1 - Comparison of effectiveness and safety of imipenem/clavulanate- <em>versus</em> meropenem/clavulanate-containing regimens in the treatment of MDR- and XDR-TB JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 1758 LP - 1766 DO - 10.1183/13993003.00214-2016 VL - 47 IS - 6 AU - Simon Tiberi AU - Giovanni Sotgiu AU - Lia D'Ambrosio AU - Rosella Centis AU - Marcos Abdo Arbex AU - Edith Alarcon Arrascue AU - Jan Willem Alffenaar AU - Jose A. Caminero AU - Mina Gaga AU - Gina Gualano AU - Alena Skrahina AU - Ivan Solovic AU - Giorgia Sulis AU - Marina Tadolini AU - Valentina Alarcon Guizado AU - Saverio De Lorenzo AU - Aurora Jazmín Roby Arias AU - Anna Scardigli AU - Onno W. Akkerman AU - Alena Aleksa AU - Janina Artsukevich AU - Vera Auchynka AU - Eduardo Henrique Bonini AU - Félix Antonio Chong Marín AU - Lorena Collahuazo López AU - Gerard de Vries AU - Simone Dore AU - Heinke Kunst AU - Alberto Matteelli AU - Charalampos Moschos AU - Fabrizio Palmieri AU - Apostolos Papavasileiou AU - Marie-Christine Payen AU - Andrea Piana AU - Antonio Spanevello AU - Dante Vargas Vasquez AU - Pietro Viggiani AU - Veronica White AU - Alimuddin Zumla AU - Giovanni Battista Migliori Y1 - 2016/06/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/47/6/1758.abstract N2 - No large study to date has ever evaluated the effectiveness, safety and tolerability of imipenem/clavulanate versus meropenem/clavulanate to treat multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR- and XDR-TB). The aim of this observational study was to compare the therapeutic contribution of imipenem/clavulanate versus meropenem/clavulanate added to background regimens to treat MDR- and XDR-TB cases.84 patients treated with imipenem/clavulanate-containing regimens showed a similar median number of antibiotic resistances (8 versus 8) but more fluoroquinolone resistance (79.0% versus 48.9%, p&lt;0.0001) and higher XDR-TB prevalence (67.9% versus 49.0%, p=0.01) in comparison with 96 patients exposed to meropenem/clavulanate-containing regimens. Patients were treated with imipenem/clavulanate- and meropenem/clavulanate-containing regimens for a median (interquartile range) of 187 (60–428) versus 85 (49–156) days, respectively.Statistically significant differences were observed on sputum smear and culture conversion rates (79.7% versus 94.8%, p=0.02 and 71.9% versus 94.8%, p&lt;0.0001, respectively) and on success rates (59.7% versus 77.5%, p=0.03). Adverse events to imipenem/clavulanate and meropenem/clavulanate were reported in 5.4% and 6.5% of cases only.Our study suggests that meropenem/clavulanate is more effective than imipenem/clavulanate in treating MDR/XDR-TB patients.Meropenem/clavulanate is safe and more effective than imipenem/clavulanate in treating MDR and XDR-TB patients http://ow.ly/Z4S2o ER -