What the heck is Aspirin-Exacerbated Respiratory Disease (AERD)?

 

 


 

Well, Aspirin-Exacerbated Respiratory Disease (AERD) is certainly a mouthful! 

Asthma really has some weird terminology, and this is one of them! 

What the heck is Aspirin-Exacerbated Respiratory Disease (AERD)? 

AERD is also known as "Sampter's Triad". The word triad is used to explain a group of three. And AERD/Sampter's Triad has - you guessed it - 3 things that usually happen. The disease has:

1. Asthma  

2. Polyps in the nose (that come back even if they are removed surgically)

3. Sensitive to aspirin or ibuprofen 

AERD/Sampter's Triad can be hard to diagnose. People are usually diagnosed later in life. Some people may notice they can't breathe as well or smell as well as they used to (this is before COVID...) 

And they may have a weird reaction to taking aspirin or ibuprofen (remember that some cold medicines also have aspirin or ibuprofen in them!) Someone may start coughing, wheezing, sneezing, or have a stuffy nose. Some people will have the same reaction if they drink beer or wine. Go figure!

However, when that happens, it is NOT classified as an allergic reaction.  

Treating AERD/Sampter's Triad

Depending on how bad you are, there are different options to treat it.

  • Take a controller/maintenance inhaler to control the asthma
  • Have the polyps surgically removed - but they will often grow back 😞
  • Avoid aspirin and ibuprofin
  • Take a biologic to control the disease (it can be expensive, but if it helps.....)
  • Do aspirin desensitization therapy (this MUST be done in a doctor's office!)

Mayo Clinic has a short video that talks about AERD/Sampter's Triad (scroll to the bottom of the page.)  If you are reading this and are thinking , "hmmmmm this sound familiar!" Then talk to your doctor.

This world is a great place, and having a good quality of life is so important. If there are things your doctor can do to help you with this, give them a call. Your life may be so much better when you can breathe and smell and not have reactions to aspirin or ibuprofen! 


Comments

  1. jakesOctober 30, 2020 at 6:34 AM

    Hi Asthmamomlife

    I am a father of asthmatic child and I am a passionate engineer. During my child's asthmatic episodes I use Albuterol and Flovant medication to help manage his symptoms. One of the tools I like to use during these episodes is Pulse Oximeter to help assess his oxygen level and based on the data I make the decision to continue or stop the medication of Albuterol.
    One of the major problems I see in using the pulse oximeters on 2 to 5 year old kids is the inability to hold their little finger steady for 10 to 15 seconds until a valid reading is taken. Which kept me wondering, am I the only one who is seeing this problem with my kid or is it a problem wide spread ? As a passionate engineer I would like to solve this problem of pulse oximeters for kids. But, I wanted to validate my problem statement with a larger community of people. I would like your help in posting a few questions to your active user community in your blog. These poll questions will help me tremendously to navigate my pursuit of a better pulse oximeter for kids and very elderly.

    Please let me know if you can post a poll question for me on your blog?

    Thanks,
    Jakes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. My Life as an Asthma MomDecember 21, 2020 at 2:24 PM

    Hi Jakes!

    I think you could get better feedback on Facebook on the "asthma" page. They have 12.000 members and the admin is a respiratory therapist

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/44749029621

    Good luck!

    ReplyDelete

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