Was ranitidine the cause of anaphylactic shock?

Your article entitled ‘Did steroids cause asthma?’ (WDDTY vol 14 no 6) was very interesting. Your response – that the patient’s ‘asthma attack’ was likely to have been an anaphylactic reaction to steroids – was quite possibly true. But you did not pick up on the fact that the patient had also been prescribed both nystatin and ranitidine in addition to a high dose of prednisolone.

I recently read an article about a study in Austria on the drug ranitidine. Researchers found that one reaction to ranitidine can be anaphylactic shock. Perhaps it was the ranitidine, possibly in combination with the prednisolone, that was the culprit. – Michael Franklin, Oxford OX4