Clinical efficacy of aspirin in "desensitised" aspirin-sensitive asthmatics

The effect of daily aspirin (ASA) administration after "desensitisation" was studied in 16 aspirin-sensitive asthmatics. Fourteen patients completed the trial; 12 of them also had perennial rhinitis and eight in addition suffered from chronic headache. During 4 weeks of daily treatment with 600 mg of ASA a marked reduction of the nasal symptoms score was noticed in 8/12 patients and head pain score was significantly decreased in 6/8 patients when compared with the 4-week non-ASA period. Daily aspirin resulted in decreases in both the mean asthma score and in daily beta-agonist usage in 7/14 patients, and 10/13 patients showed a decrease in bronchial responsiveness to inhaled histamine (geometric mean of provocative concentration of histamine 1.8 and 5.8 mg/ml, respectively. In four patients we noticed untoward epigastric symptoms. A decrease in thrombocyte counts was observed during ASA treatment. Our study suggests that daily aspirin administration after "desensitisation" may be helpful in the management of some ASA-sensitive asthmatics.