Recently, a patient had a complex allergic reaction in the form of a rash. I was quite stymied in figuring out what was causing it. Ultimately, I identified her thiazide diuretic as the culprit, specifically the sulfonamides in it. Sure enough, the rash cleared when she discontinued the medication.
A few weeks ago, the patient’s husband asked me, “what is the mechanism of a ‘sulfa allergy’? Does it mean [his wife] can never take a sulfur-based medication again?” I didn’t know the answer to his questions, as I had never given the subject much thought. Thus, I became curious and did some research into the topic.
I discovered that, in most cases, the patient is allergic to sulfonamide medications exclusively. A sulfa allergy doesn’t mean an adverse reaction to everything containing sulfur (such as food products). Sulfur itself is present in most proteins and genetic material. Furthermore, sulfur is an essential component to environmental functions such as the global sulfur cycle.
Conversely, sulfonamides are the molecules only used in medications. There are two classes of sulfonamide medications: antimicrobial and non-antimicrobial. The former is the more allergenic of the two. A sulfa allergy is pretty rare, affecting only 3.4% of the population.
Patients who are very sensitive to sulfonamides (e.g. HIV patients) have an increased concentration of reactive metabolites. So do people with slower drug metabolism (slow acetylators). Metabolites are the byproducts of the liver’s partial breakdown of sulfonamide. This process can bind proteins in the serum and become “immunogenic”.
What are the risks of non-antimicrobial sulfonamides? These medications (loop diuretics, sulfonylureas, dapsone) seem less likely to produce an immune system response. If a patient is allergic to sulfonamide antibiotics, the non antibiotics are not necessarily unsafe to use. But in cases where severe reactions occur, use caution. The same holds true for patients allergic to non-antimicrobial sulfonamides: discontinue use if you have a severe reaction.