[Prevention of recurrent respiratory infections in adults]

The authors compared the results obtained by using antibiotic therapy, vaccine, thymomodulin (a calf thymus acid lysate) and association of vaccine-thymomodulin in order to prevent acute infectious episodes in a group of 85 patients suffering with recurrent respiratory infections. The use of thymomodulin, alone and in association with vaccine, at the dose of 120 mg/die for 20 days/month during the period of observation (4 months), determined a higher reduction, (p less than 0.001) if compared with the other treatments, of the number and the duration of infectious episodes and moreover of the antibiotics' intake. Also the respiratory symptoms, and in particular the fits of coughing, showed an improvement. The pulmonary function indices and the laboratory parameters were unchanged in all groups studied.