Profile of serious angioedema requiring an urgent advice from a national reference call center

Abstract

Angioedema (AE) is a reason for emergency care when it is severe. Care is difficult when the diagnostic is not known before the attack: mast cell (MC) or bradykinin (BK) mediated. One is very common but often benign, the other rare but potentially fatal. The French national reference center of angioedema (CREAK) provides emergency physicians with a hotline and a guideline to help them manage their patients. This study aimed to describe the clinical features of AE episodes prompting a call on the CREAK hotline and classify patients depending on the suspected cause of the AE. This is a retrospective study between March and August 2019. Each physician calling on the CREAK hotline was asked to fill a clinical description form for the AE emergency. Known patients of CREAK was excluded. Eighty four patients were included. Forty one (48.8%) in the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors induced acquired angioedema (ACEi-AAE), 39 (46.4%) in the mast cell induced angioedema, and 4 (4.8%) in the Bradykinin mediated angioedema. The mast cell induced angioedema patients have more history of hives (29.3%) than ACEi-AAE (2.4%, P = .0004). ACEi-AAE mainly affected the tongue (58.5% vs 25.6%, P = .003) and larynx (29.3% vs 13%, P = .001). In 65.5% of cases, the etiological diagnosis was not mentioned by the appellant, but made by the hotline. In 31% of cases, the hotline suggested the administration of a specific treatment not previously provided by the caller. All the doctors who called the hotline appreciate this tele-expertise especially in case of ACEi-AAE presumptions. In addition to providing rapid AE expertise, this service also allows to educate physicians in the management of AE irrespective of its origin.