BACKGROUND: Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is a life-threatening disorder characterized by recurrent angioedema. Icatibant, a subcutaneous bradykinin-B2-receptor antagonist, is an effective on-demand therapy. Data outside the United States suggest that self-administration is tolerated and patient-preferred compared with administration by health care professionals at medical facilities (HCP-administration).
OBJECTIVE: A prospective, multicenter study was conducted in the United States to compare icatibant self-administration and HCP-administration.
METHODS: Subjects 18 years or older with type I or II HAE were recruited. The first 2 HAE attacks after enrollment were treated at medical facilities. Subjects were instructed by a health care professional on self-administration during icatibant treatment for the second HAE attack. Icatibant was self-administered for all subsequent attacks. For each treated HAE attack, efficacy, safety, and tolerability data were recorded.
RESULTS: Nineteen patients with HAE received icatibant for 79 distinct HAE attacks. Mean attack duration was significantly shorter with self-administration (n = 50; 547 +/- 510 minutes) than with HCP-administration (n = 29; 968 +/- 717 minutes; P = .006). Mean time to treatment was significantly shorter with self-administration (143 +/- 226 minutes) than with HCP-administration (361 +/- 503 minutes; P < .0001). Shorter times to treatment were associated with shorter time from treatment to symptom resolution (r = 0.35; P = .02). Improvements in visual analog scale score and patient symptom score from pretreatment to 4 hours postinjection were comparable between self-administration and HCP-administration. There were no serious adverse events or discontinuations due to adverse events with self-administration or HCP-administration.
CONCLUSIONS: Icatibant self-administration shortened attack duration and time to treatment, with no difference in safety or local tolerability compared with HCP-administration. These findings support icatibant as an effective on-demand option for home-based treatment.
Copyright © 2016 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Available from: http://www.jaci-inpractice.org/article/S2213-2198(16)30424-X/fulltext