Table 1 Characteristics of the included studies
Study | Design | Study site | Study period | Study subjects | Study drug | Control | No. in study group | No. in control group | Primary outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Varney et al. 2008 [14] | Double-blind randomized placebo-controlled pilot study | Single center in the UK | NA | Patients < 85 years old with progressive fibrotic lung disease | co-trimoxazole for 3 months | Placebo | 10 | 10 | Exercise capacity |
Shulgina et al. 2013 [18] | Randomized placebo-controlled double-blind parallel-group | 28 sites in the UK | 2008–2009 | Patients aged > 40 years, with a diagnosis of fibrotic idiopathic interstitial pneumonia and a MRC dyspnea score of ≥ 2 | co-trimoxazole for 12 months | Placebo | 95 | 86 | Forced vital capacity |
Wilson et al. 2020 [20] | Double-blind placebo-controlled, parallel randomized trial | 43 sites in the UK | 2015–2019 | IPF diagnosed according to contemporaneous international guidelines and an mMRC dyspnea scale score > 1 | co-trimoxazole for between 12 and 42 months | Placebo | 170 | 172 | Time to all-cause death, lung transplant, or first nonelective hospital admission |
Martinez et al. 2021 [21] | Pragmatic, randomized, unblinded clinical trial | 35 sites in the US | 2017–2019 | Aged ≥ 40 years and diagnosed with IPF by the enrolling investigator | co-trimoxazole or doxycycline + usual care | Usual care | 254 | 259 | Time to first nonelective respiratory hospitalization or all-cause mortality |