Background: The study aimed to determine whether allergic conditions accomp
any analgesic intolerance.
Methods: A total of 132 analgesic-intolerant patients with bronchial asthma
admitted to the adult allergy unit from January 1991 to October 1997 and 1
03 patients with bronchial asthma randomly selected from among the asthmati
cs referred to our department between January and October 1997 were enrolle
d in the study. Those having analgesic intolerance and bronchial asthma wer
e accepted as group I; patients having only asthma were accepted as group I
I. A standard questionnaire was completed for all the patients. Physical ex
amination, routine skin prick tests, determination of total IgE levels and
blood type, and oral analgesic provocation tests were also performed.
Results: The results showed that some allergic conditions were significantl
y more common in group 1 (22.7% and 7.8% for food allergy/intolerance [P<0.
05], 16.7% and 7.8% for antibiotic allergy, 16.7% and 2.9% for dermographis
m, 9.8% and 1.0% for metal allergy, and 9.1% and 1.0% for chronic urticaria
for groups I and II, respectively [P<0.001]). In addition, the mean of the
total IgE level in the serum was higher in group I than group II (77.6 and
53.7 IU/ml; P<0.05), and the cumulative analgesic consumption was more in
group I (14.2 +/- 17.1 and 9.1 +/- 12.5 boxes; P<0.05).
Conclusions: Dermographism; chronic urticaria; antibiotic, metal, and food
allergy; high levels of total IgE; and a high amount of cumulative analgesi
c consumption may be the conditions accompanying analgesic intolerance in a
sthmatics.