Results
Fifty-four children with CSLD or bronchiectasis, and isolation of Pa in
at least one clinical sample, were identified through the clinical
records. The patient’s clinical characteristics are shown in table 1.
There were only 16 patients who had valid spirometries both at the time
of Pa isolation and at the end of the follow-up period with no
difference between the ppFEV1 values between the two time points
(93.2±1.3, and 94.0±1.5, respectively, p= 0.43). The same comparison was
also performed in the subgroup of 8 patients who attained remission and
no difference was found (93.7±2.0, and 94.4±2.2, respectively, p= 0.68).
The Cox proportional hazards model showed that
the use of nebulised colistin and
the presence of bronchiectasis at HRCT scan were statistically
significant predictors of remission
(HR:3.99; 95%CI:1.12-14.14; p=
0.032, and HR:0.24; 95%CI:0.08-0.71; p= 0.010). The estimated HRs
indicated that patients on colistin
were, on average, approximately
four times more likely to achieve remission compared to patients not
treated with this drug whereas patients with radiologically confirmed
bronchiectasis were, on average, approximately four times less likely to
achieve remission compared with patients without bronchiectasis. Age,
use of azithromycin, and
hypertonic saline inhalation were also included as covariates in the Cox
model but no significant correlation between them and remission was
established (HR:1.13; 95%CI:0.99-1.28; p=0.06, HR:1.34;
95%CI:0.46-3.93; p= 0.58 , HR:0.80; 95%CI:0.22-2.87; p= 0.74,
respectively). The differences in time to remission for the two
significant predictors are shown in Figure 1.
The Schoenfeld tests showed that there was no violation of the
proportional assumption in our model (all p >0.05).