AERD

Q: Patients with Aspirin-Exacerbated Respiratory Distress (AERD) are usually sicker than patients with aspirin-tolerant asthma?

A) True

B) False

Answer: A

Popularly known as the Samter triad, it consists of the following:

• asthma
• aspirin sensitivity, and
• nasal polyps  

Patients with a full triad are usually adults, as the three components develop sequentially over the years. Unfortunately, these patients are more likely to have severe and many times resistant asthma, requiring ventilator and systemic steroids. One of the diagnostic points is that lung inflammation is nearly always eosinophilic and more driven by cysteinyl leukotrienes.

#pulmonary

References:

1. Rajan JP, Wineinger NE, Stevenson DD, White AA. Prevalence of aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease among asthmatic patients: A meta-analysis of the literature. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2015; 135:676.

2. Mascia K, Haselkorn T, Deniz YM, et al. Aspirin sensitivity and severity of asthma: evidence for irreversible airway obstruction in patients with severe or difficult-to-treat asthma. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2005; 116:970.

3. Comhair SAA, Bochenek G, Baicker-McKee S, et al. The utility of biomarkers in diagnosis of aspirin exacerbated respiratory disease. Respir Res 2018; 19:210.