Reye S Syndrome With Aspirin

All body organs are affected with the liver and brain suffering most seriously.
Reye s syndrome with aspirin. Avoid reye s syndrome with safer drugs. Aspirin is no exception. Reye s syndrome a deadly disease strikes swiftly and can attack any child teen or adult without warning. Having an underlying fatty acid oxidation disorder.
That is why it is important to not use aspirin to treat a child s headache. Studies have found that the main risk factor for reye s syndrome is taking aspirin. The use of aspirin or salicylates is known to increase the risk for reye s syndrome if used during a viral illness. It can affect people of any age but it is most often seen in children and teenagers recovering from a virus such as the flu or chickenpox.
Clearly no drug treatment is without side effects. The earlier epidemiological report has declared that excess use of aspirin caused progress to reye s. A potential increased risk of developing reye syndrome is one of the main reasons that aspirin has not been recommended for use in children and teenagers the age group for which the risk of lasting serious effects is highest. Reye s syndrome usually appears after a flu like infection upper respiratory infection chicken pox or other viral illness.
Taking aspirin to treat such an infection greatly increases the risk of reye s. The suggestion of a defined cause effect relationship between aspirin intake and reye syndrome in children is not supported by sufficient facts. Reye syndrome is very uncommon in kawasaki disease patients despite the widespread use of aspirin. It is time to rethink the link between aspirin and reye syndrome in the light of the rising prevalence of allergies for which the declining use of aspirin may be contributory.
The serious symptoms of reye syndrome appear to result from damage to cellular mitochondria at least in the liver and there are a number of ways that aspirin could cause or exacerbate mitochondrial damage. Using aspirin to treat a viral infection such as flu chickenpox or an upper respiratory infection. Aspirin is only linked to reye s syndrome in children adults don t seem to be at risk. The underlying problem with the use of aspirin during a viral illness is an inhibition of fatty acid metabolism oxidative phosphorylation and b oxidation in the liver.
Thus a balanced view of whether treatment with a certain drug is justified in terms of the benefit risk ratio is always necessary. Both chickenpox and the flu can cause headaches. So if you have a headache or your doctor wants you to take low dose aspirin to lower your risk of cardiovascular problems that s ok. The association of reye s syndrome with aspirin arose as the symptoms and clinical manifestation of salicylate poisoning are of similar to reye s syndrome.