Current synthetic notions on aspirin induced asthma

Aspirin was discovered by Gerhardt in 1853. The first examples of its negative side-effects in the form of asthma like dyspnea were described as early as 1911 by Gilbert, and then by Reeds and by Cookes. Widal depicted the typical symptomatic triad of aspirin-associated illness in 1922, with the symptoms ‘nasal polyposis, severe asthma, and intolerance to aspirin’. The role of inhibition of the cyclooxygenase was highlighted in the physiopathologic interpretation of the diseases in 1975. Since then, great progress has been made not only in the analysis of the disease, but also in the way to treat it that has been performed thanks to a new approach in the relative positions of ‘nose bronchi’ that enables the development of a new strategy in the relation between ‘nasal and chest specialists’. If the mean of immuno-allergologic investigations, and particularly the scanographic and endoscopic imaging, have enabled a better cure for ‘illness due to aspirin’, it is nevertheless the case that this illness remains cortico-dependent too often. Important progress has been expected since the discovery of anti-leukotriens and several teams apparently emphasize how useful anti-leukotriens are in the control of aspirin-associated illness. Thus, this enables one to hope for a decrease in the first effective dose of corticosteroids and ever for the total elimination thereof.