Icatibant for the treatment of orolingual angioedema following the administration of tissue plasminogen activator

Angioedema is swelling of the dermis and mucosal tissues caused by hyper permeability of post capillary venules due to the release of vasodilators such as histamine and bradykinin. It is a rare, but potentially life-threatening side effect of alteplase with a reported incidence of 0.9 –5.1% in ischemic stroke patients [1,2]. Alteplase is a recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) that works by binding to fibrin in a blood clot, and subsequently converting plasminogen to plasmin which initiates fibrinolysis [3].
Source: The American Journal of Emergency Medicine - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Source Type: research