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The Question of Clarithromycin: A First-Line Drug for Sinusitis?
Robert W. Tahara, MD;
Steve Oosterman, DO;
W. R. Kiser, MD, MA
US Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Fla
Arch Fam Med. 1994;3(7):574.
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| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings. |
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We read with great interest the article by Calhoun and Hokanson1 comparing clarithromycin and amoxicillin in the treatment of acute maxillary sinusitis. The determination of optimal, cost-effective treatment for this common and often vexing entity is clearly important to our specialty, and we appreciate their effort toward this end.
We have some reservations, however, with the methods and implied conclusions of this study. Specifically, the use of Fisher's Exact Test vs the  2 test in the analysis of the categorical data, the scant attention paid to side effects, and the choice of amoxicillin as the comparison drug.
The use of Fisher's Exact Test in this study seems unjustified, given that there were 116 subjects. Usually Fisher's Exact Test is reserved for use in instances in which the expected frequency of one of the cells in a 2x2 table is less than five,2 which is not the case.
. . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]
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