Clinical comparison of once-daily cefadroxil and thrice-daily cefaclor in the treatment of streptococcal pharyngitis.

The efficacy of cefadroxil once daily and cefaclor given 3 times daily was compared in 250 pediatric patients with group A beta-hemolytic streptococcal pharyngitis. The duration of the therapy was 10 days. Therapeutic response was based on clinical responses at 24 h and 10 days and throat cultures on days 14, and 21 or 28. Five (5%) cefadroxil-treated patients and 12 (12%) cefaclor-treated patients were still culture-positive on day 14. When the patients were stratified according to major differences between treatment groups observed at baseline, a significant difference between the treatment groups in favor of cefadroxil was found on day 14 (p = 0.020) and days 21-28 (p = 0.043). These data were confirmed by the clinical findings; failure or clinical recurrence occurred in 4.6% of cefadroxil-treated patients versus 22.1% of cefaclor-treated patients. The patients complied with the recommended drug regimen, and none experienced any significant drug-related adverse reactions. The results of this study indicate that cefadroxil given once daily for streptococcal pharyngitis is an effective and well-tolerated antimicrobial agent, and suggest that the desirable pharmacokinetic properties of cefadroxil contribute to this efficacy.