User login

Enter your username and password here in order to log in on the website:
Login

Forgot your password?

Please note: While some information will still be current in a year, other information may already be out of date in three months time. If you are in any doubt, please feel free to ask.

Henoch-Schoenlein purpura as reaction to Pulmozyme®?

Question
Dear experts,
our daughter, 9 years old, is in a good general condition. However, she just had a common cold. Her immune system reacted normally, the fever disappeared after one day, then for 2 days increased temperature. She also had a strong cough in the upper area, no bronchitis, the lungs were free on auscultation.
The treating hospital already recommended before the infection that our daugther should inhale Pulmozyme® (rh-DNAse). We started the therapy 3 days after disappearance of the fever. First pains in the joints already occured on the evening after. We inhaled for 3 more times. After the second time the red hematoma ressembling spots on the feet appeared and in addition very hard pain in the upper legs and feet. Then we went to the clinic and Henoch-Schoenlein purpura was diagnosed. We were told to go on with inhalation of Pulmozyme®. Is this recommendable? Could it not be that the purpura has been provoked by Pulmozyme®? Thanks for the answers.
Answer
Hello,
these are two different things. On the one hand your daughter with CF has had an infection of the upper airways, on the other hand Pulmozyme® has been recommended for inhalation.
The clinical picture of Henoch-Schoenlein purpura appears typically after or in the course of a mostly viral infection of the upper airways, and is characterized by painful bleedings in the skin, especially at the lower extremities and the buttocks, sometimes also by abdominal pain. Furthermore it can come to a relapse after healing.
The inhalation with Pulmozyme® has no correlation with the skin changes. As an intermittend side effect of the inhalation with Pulmozyme® i.a. hoarseness and pharyngitis are described, no reactions of the skin as described by you.
I would therefore recommend that your daughter goes on with the inhalation of Pulmozyme®.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. H. Ellemunter
16.04.2013