Asthma, COPD and other chronic pulmonary diseases increased the risk of adverse outcomes for those hospitalized with anaphylaxis and other allergic conditions, according to research appearing in BMJ Open.
Investigators found that asthmatics were 28% less likely to have a prolonged length of stay and more than twice as likely to be placed on a ventilator than non-asthmatics.
Researchers identified 30,390 patients who were hospitalized in Texas for allergic conditions between 2004 and 2007; 2410 of whom had a primary or secondary diagnosis of anaphylaxis at discharge.
Among the overall cohort The 2772 patients with were 67% more likely to receive mechanical ventilation than those without asthma. The 1818 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 this unique exploratory analysis of a large database, we examined the association between chronic pulmonary diseases and four indicators of anaphylaxis severity in hospitalized patients,” the authors concluded. “We found that asthma, COPD and other chronic pulmonary diseases increased the risk of adverse outcomes among hospitalized patients with anaphylaxis.”
They noted that 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.
