Metamizole intolerance and bronchial asthma

Abstract

Background: Metamizole is one of the pyrazolone drugs used widely in Turkey. The aim of this survey was to determine the clinical features of metamizole intolerant patients and to find out if there was any difference between the ones with or without bronchial asthma.

Methods: A total of 264 patients with metamizole intolerance were enrolled in the survey. Patients having bronchial asthma were accepted as group I (n = 133) and the ones without bronchial asthma as group II (n = 131). A standard questionnaire was used to collect the data.

Results: The mean age of the patients were 41.8 11.8 and 39.2 12.2 for groups I and II respectively and 99 (79.4 %) and 99 (75.6 %) were females in the same order. There was no significant difference between groups I and II when the rates of personal atopy, familial atopy and familial analgesic intolerance were compared. The most common reactions appearing after metamizole ingestion was bronchospasm (75.9 and 9 %) and urticaria (25.6 and 64.9 %) (for groups I and II, respectively and p < 0.05). Aspirin cross-reactivity was significantly more common in group I. At least one safe alternative analgesic was determined for all the patients who have not been able to use any analgesic.

Conclusions: Metamizole intolerance seems to be as important as aspirin intolerance in Turkey. The clinical features in general appear to be similar for metamizole and aspirin intolerant asthmatics.