Pentamidine for Pneumocystis Pneumonia

Excerpt

To the Editors: A recent issue featured two prospective, randomized studies comparing intravenous and inhaled pentamidine as primary therapy for Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (1, 2). Both Soo Hoo and colleagues (1) and Conte and associates (2) demonstrated that intravenous pentamidine was superior to inhaled pentamidine for treatment of mild to moderate P. carinii pneumonia. However, although the clinical characteristics and disease activity of the inhaled and intravenous pentamidine groups were carefully described and well matched, little or no mention was made of concomitant corticosteroid use in either study other than the statement by Soo Hoo and colleagues (1) that one