Researchers have found that patients with chronic lung diseases, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), are significantly more likely to have poor outcomes when hospitalized for anaphylaxis and other allergic conditions compared with other patients.
Zuber Mulla, University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston, El Paso and Estelle Simons, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada identified 30,390 patients who were hospitalized in Texas for allergic conditions between 2004 and 2007. Overall, 2410 had a primary or secondary diagnosis of anaphylaxis at discharge.
The 2,772 (9.1%) patients in the overall cohort who had asthma were 67% more likely to receive mechanical ventilation than patients without asthma, while the 1818 (6.0%) patients with COPD were 35% more likely to be admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), 41% more likely to experience a prolonged stay in hospital (over 3 days), and 98% more likely to receive mechanical ventilation than those without the condition.
In the sub-cohort of patients with anaphylaxis, patients with asthma (n=334; 13.9%) did not have an increased risk for mortality compared with other patients, but they were over two-fold more likely to be mechanically ventilated (odds ratio= 2.45 vs patients without asthma).
Meanwhile, COPD patients with anaphylaxis (n=149; 6.2%) were 86% more likely to experience a prolonged hospital stay and 61% more likely to receive mechanical ventilation than patients without COPD.
Other lung conditions associated with poor outcomes included pulmonary eosinophilia, which increased the odds for ICU admission in patients with allergic conditions, while chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and interstitial lung diseases were linked to an increased risk for hospital mortality. In particular, in the sub-cohort of patients with anaphylaxis, interstitial lung disease was linked to an 8.71-fold increased odds for mortality and a 5.16-fold increased odds for mechanical ventilation.
Writing in BMJ Open, Mulla and Simons said that their “unique exploratory analysis of a large database” offers new insight into the effects of chronic pulmonary disease on anaphylaxis, an area for which there has previously been a dearth of information.
They add: “Additional population-based epidemiological studies are. needed to explore the relationship of asthma severity with anaphylaxis and to investigate the epidemiology of comorbid COPD and other respiratory disorders with anaphylaxis.”
