Analgesics, allergy and asthma.

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Abstract
1 Recent studies of idiosyncratic reactions to analgesics have revealed several clinical patterns with a different pathogenesis. 2 In the pathogenesis of a common type of asthma precipitated by aspirin, inhibition of cyclooxygenase leading to disturbances in metabolism of arachidonic acid is of fundamental importance. 3 In some patients with urticaria/angioedema, symptoms are due to inhibition of cyclo‐oxygenase by analgesics; in others the cause might be impurities in commercial preparations of aspirin; and in others the mechanisms are still unknown. 4 There is a distinct group of patients who develop anaphylactic shock or urticaria following administration of pyrazolone drugs, but who tolerate aspirin and other cyclo‐oxygenase inhibitors. This type of hypersensitivity seems to have an immunological background.