Brief communication: tolerability of meropenem in patients with IgE-mediated hypersensitivity to penicillins. Export

@article{citeulike:5630424, abstract = {BACKGROUND: Although clinicians avoid giving meropenem to patients with penicillin allergy because of potential cross-reactivity, the rate of cross-reactivity between penicillins and meropenem has not been prospectively determined. OBJECTIVE: To assess the tolerability of meropenem in patients with documented penicillin allergy. DESIGN: Prospective skin testing and antibiotic challenge. SETTING: Allergy units of 2 Italian medical centers. PATIENTS: 104 consecutive participants with immediate hypersensitivity reactions to penicillins and positive skin test results to at least 1 penicillin reagent. MEASUREMENTS: Skin tests to meropenem and, if results were negative, challenges with escalating doses of meropenem. RESULTS: One participant (0.9\% [95\% CI, 0.02\% to 5.2\%]) had a positive intradermal test result to meropenem. The remaining 103 participants with negative skin test results to meropenem tolerated escalating dose challenges. LIMITATION: Challenges were not followed by therapeutic courses. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate a low rate of cross-reactivity between penicillins and meropenem. Therefore, the practice of avoiding meropenem therapy in penicillin-allergic patients should be reconsidered. In patients who especially require meropenem treatment, the authors recommend pretreatment skin tests because negative results indicate tolerability.}, author = {Romano, Antonino and Viola, Marinella and Gu\'{e}ant-Rodriguez, Rosa-Maria M. and Gaeta, Francesco and Valluzzi, Rocco and Gu\'{e}ant, Jean-Louis L.}, citeulike-article-id = {5630424}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17310050}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=17310050}, day = {20}, issn = {1539-3704}, journal = {Annals of internal medicine}, keywords = {allergy, general, id}, month = {February}, number = {4}, pages = {266--269}, posted-at = {2009-08-24 11:50:43}, priority = {2}, title = {Brief communication: tolerability of meropenem in patients with IgE-mediated hypersensitivity to penicillins.}, url = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17310050}, volume = {146}, year = {2007} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:5630424 L3 - citeulike-article-id:5630424 N2 - BACKGROUND: Although clinicians avoid giving meropenem to patients with penicillin allergy because of potential cross-reactivity, the rate of cross-reactivity between penicillins and meropenem has not been prospectively determined. OBJECTIVE: To assess the tolerability of meropenem in patients with documented penicillin allergy. DESIGN: Prospective skin testing and antibiotic challenge. SETTING: Allergy units of 2 Italian medical centers. PATIENTS: 104 consecutive participants with immediate hypersensitivity reactions to penicillins and positive skin test results to at least 1 penicillin reagent. MEASUREMENTS: Skin tests to meropenem and, if results were negative, challenges with escalating doses of meropenem. RESULTS: One participant (0.9% [95% CI, 0.02% to 5.2%]) had a positive intradermal test result to meropenem. The remaining 103 participants with negative skin test results to meropenem tolerated escalating dose challenges. LIMITATION: Challenges were not followed by therapeutic courses. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate a low rate of cross-reactivity between penicillins and meropenem. Therefore, the practice of avoiding meropenem therapy in penicillin-allergic patients should be reconsidered. In patients who especially require meropenem treatment, the authors recommend pretreatment skin tests because negative results indicate tolerability. IS - 4 JF - Annals of internal medicine SN - 1539-3704 EP - 269 TI - Brief communication: tolerability of meropenem in patients with IgE-mediated hypersensitivity to penicillins. VL - 146 SP - 266 KW - allergy KW - general KW - id AU - Romano, Antonino AU - Viola, Marinella AU - Guéant-Rodriguez, Rosa-Maria AU - Gaeta, Francesco AU - Valluzzi, Rocco AU - Guéant, Jean-Louis PY - 2007/02/20/ UR - http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17310050 ER -