PREHEAT: Novel methods for predicting and treating attacks in patients with hereditary angioedema

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 02.0347

Key words (English)

Life Sciences; Medicine; Health; Scientific Research

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: QLG1-CT-2002-01359

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 5. Frame Research Programme - 1.1.2 Control of infectious diseases

Short description (English)

See abstract

Abstract (English)

Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is a rare, potentially lethal disease caused by the deficiency of Cl inhibitor. It is characterised by recurrent swelling of the skin (causing disfiguration), of the bowel (causing severe abdominal pain), of the upper airways (causing asphyxia). There is very low awareness to this disease; thus a minority of patients reach correct diagnosis and treatment. Small and dispersed case-list and lack of epidemiological data lessen the value of clinical studies and discourage research aimed to develop new therapeutic strategies. We propose the creation of a European research group on HAE composed by scientist, clinicians and associations of patients involved in the field of HAE.

The project is aimed to improve the quality of life of HAE patients through:
(i) creation of a European register for HAE;
(ii) improvement of existing therapeutic resources;
(iii) identification of new targets for therapy.

1.Updateable database to monitor HAE and its evolution in terms of number of diagnosis, clinical variables, need for treatments, social impact;
2.Genetic typing of HAE patients and creation of a centralized database ofmutations;
3.Determination of the genotype/phenotype correlation;
4.Assessment of the measurement of different sex hormones and of contact system activation in the prediction of the attack rate and drug requirement;
5.Determination of the efficacy of the eradication of Helicobacter pylori in reducing the number of attacks in the infected patients;
6.Assessment of risk/benefit balance in long-term prophylactic treatment with attenuated androgens and of other existing therapeutic approaches;
7.Delivery of guidelines for optimisation of the current and new therapies;
8.Guidelines to approach HAE women with problems of contraception.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 02.0347