Reye's Syndrome and Medication Use

Reye syndrome revisited: a descriptive term covering a group of heterogeneous disorders

“…However, the nature of the association between viral infection and RS was not well understood. The sporadic occurrence of RS in a community in which viral infection is widespread made some authors believe that viral infection in itself was not sucient to explain the syndrome and that additional cofactors such as a¯atoxin [70] or salicylates [31,33,42,45,46,51,52,82,86] seem to be necessary. However, this hypothesis has to be challenged.…”

“…However, this hypothesis fell by the wayside in the 1980s due to the United States epidemiological studies. These surveys eliminated the anti-emetics by a major bias, namely by the arbitrary de®nition of the onset of RS [31,46,50,51,82,86], as we will discuss later.…”

“…A possible link between acetylsalicylic acid and RS has been suggested by several epidemiological studies such as the ®ve CDC case-control surveys from the United States, [31,45,46,51,52,82,86]. In contrast, the epidemiological study in Japan failed to con®rm this association [88].…”

“…Forsyth et al [32] mentioned that no one has reported on the validity or reliability of this technique as it is used in clinical practice. Moreover, in the epidemiological studies, electron microscopy of the liver has been performed in relatively few cases [31,45,46,51,52,82,86]. Even in the two Task Force reports [51,52], we are not told whether the speci®c mitochondrial abnormality was ever demonstrated by electron microscopy.…”

Reye Syndrome and Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis in Michigan

“…(2) Fatty meta¬ morphosis of the liver diagnosed by either biopsy or autopsy or a threefold or greater rise in the levels of either serum glutamicoxaloacetic transaminase, serum glutamicpyruvic transaminase, or serum ammonia. (3) No obvious alternative explanation for the cerebral or hepatic abnormalities.6…”