Aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD) is a non-allergic hypersensitivity reaction that generally affects people between the age of 30 and 40 and affects more women than men. It has also been known to afflict children. Usually within two years of the first signs of AERD, a patient will also develop asthma.
The condition will generally cause three troublesome symptoms that can sometimes be life-threatening: severe chronic rhinosinusitis, nasal polyposis and aspirin sensitivity. Patients who may not have any other allergies show a severe allergic reaction and sensitivity to aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), which are used to treat asthma.
Asthma is a chronic condition of inflammation of the airways leading to the lungs, which causes breathlessness and wheezing, coughing, excess mucus and tightness in the chest. Research shows that using NSAIDS is likely to trigger a severe attack of AERD, which can often result in hospitalisation.
If you are asthmatic and also have AERD, your lung function is likely to be worse than asthma patients who don’t have the hypersensitivity reaction and consequently your quality of life is generally poorer. The excessive nasal polyps are particularly painful and uncomfortable for patients as they can often fill the nasal cavity, requiring surgery to remove them, again adding to the decreased quality of life.
AERD often goes undiagnosed and the actual diagnosis requires close clinical supervision. The patient can only be tested when his or her asthma is stable. Doses of aspirin are administered over several hours and the patient’s response to the analgesic closely monitored. Once diagnosed, asthma with AERD is usually treated with high doses of inhaled or oral corticosteroids. As with asthma, there is no cure for AERD.