Can Systemic Mastocytosis Increase Risk of Anaphylactic Shock?
More Programs and Publications Featuring Dr. Brandy Gunsolus
In this program:
How does systemic mastocytosis increase the risk of life-threatening anaphylactic shock? And how can patients protect themselves? Medical laboratory scientist Dr. Brandy Gunsolus explains..
Transcript
Ariqa Everett:
How does systemic mastocytosis increase the risk of life-threatening anaphylactic shock? And how can patients protect themselves?
Dr. Brandy Gunsolus:
So since systemic mastocytosis is essentially a condition where the inflammatory response is already activated and anaphylactic response and anaphylactic shock is where the inflammation act is overactive and it cuts off your air supply. An SM it's already activated, and it doesn't take much to really push you over the edge. So something that normally would have elicited a mild allergic response, you end up with this over-response in these patients, and they are much more likely to develop anaphylactic shock. The big things are insect stings, insect bites. In a person that's got systemic mastocytosis, even intense exercise can trigger an anaphylactic like reaction.
Certain medications can do it. And what is interesting is that these reactions, typically, one of the things that happens very quickly is the blood pressure drops very rapidly and the patient either passes out or nearly passes out, and then it's like the response just takes over. If you have systemic mastocytosis, you need to be cognizant of your surroundings. You don't want to intentionally put yourself in a situation that may trigger a response. So you want to be mindful of, "Is there wasps’ nests nearby? Do you see hornets." Avoid intense exercise. You can do exercise, but that really intense exercise is probably not something that you want to do with systemic mastocytosis. And then there are certain medications and if you have systemic mastocytosis and you're concerned that some of those medications may trigger response, please ask your pharmacist and they can help you with ensuring that those medications would be safe for you.
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