Abstract: AIM: To explore the cost-effective quali-ty about the treatment of azithromycin and levo-ofloxacin in suspected contagious atypical pneumonia (SARS) pa-tients.METHODS: Azithromycin and levo-ofloxacin were administered intravenously and orally, respectively. All suspected SARS patients (n =75) were divided into three groups according to their responses to the therapy: clinically diagnosed patients (group A, n =18), clini-cally excluded patients (group B, n =51), and patients with suspected bacterial pneumonia (group C, n =6). Duration of fever, temperature at admission, time of fever reduction, duration of hospitalization and total expenditure were recorded for each patient. RESULTS: There were no differences (P>0.05) in age and temperature at ad-mission between SARS group (group A) and non-SARS group (group B and C). 51 patients were excluded from SARS after 3-day treatment. The duration of hospitaliza-tion in non-SARS group was significantly shorter than that of group A (8.0 ±4.0 days vs 13.4 ±4.8 days, P<0.01), and the total medical expenditure of the former was markedly lower than that of the latter (4973 ±3410 yuan vs 7363±2835yuan, P <0.01). All patientswere restored well. A follow-up study showed that no patients of non-SARS group were misdiagnosed. The therapeutic expenditure for all 3groupswas far lower than the average cost for SARS and suspected SARS patients of Guangzhou City. CONCLUSION: Treatment with intravenous ad-ministration of azithromycin and oral administration of lev-o-ofloxacin provides an effective method to early exclude the SARS-free patients, and it is cheap according with the basic sanitary hygiene rules.This protocol deserves long-term clinical utilization, investigation and further im-provement.

Key words: contagion pneumonia, azithromycin, lev-o-ofloxacin, atypical