Treatment of acute edema attacks in hereditary angioedema with a bradykinin receptor-2 antagonist (Icatibant)

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Bradykinin and Icatibant, published as a clinical trial, phase i.

In hereditary angioedema, bradykinin is assumed to be the most important mediator of edema formation.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 15 patients taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

In this uncontrolled pilot study, 15 patients with 20 attacks were treated with Icatibant.

The attacks were analyzed by using a standardized and validated visual analog scale measurement and compared with historical data of untreated attacks.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a pilot study.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Bradykinin study would be practical.

Plasma bradykinin concentration was measured before and 4 hours after intravenous Icatibant treatment.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Acute Disease, Angioedema, Bradykinin, Bradykinin B2 Receptor Antagonists, Genetic Diseases, Inborn and Pilot Projects.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a pilot study of Bradykinin and Icatibant in 15 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2007 (The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Bradykinin compound page and the Icatibant compound page, all human trials.