ACARE - Angioedema Centers of Reference and Excellence
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Do you (or did you so in the last 6 months) take an ACE inhibitor?
(ACE-inhibitors are drugs to treat heart or kidney diseases (e.g. high blood pressure) and their active substances are named with the ending -pril, e.g. captopril, ramipril, or enalapril).
Do you take (or did you so in the last 6 months) a sartan or a gliptin?
(Sartans are drugs to treat heart diseases (e.g. high blood pressure) and their active substances are named with the ending -sartan, e.g. candesartan, losartan, or valsartan. Gliptins are drugs to treat diabetes and their active substances are named with the ending -gliptin, e.g. sitagliptin, saxagliptin, or linagliptin).
At what age (approximately) did the angioedema symptoms start?
(Angioedema are usually skin colored, mostly hard to delimit, sometimes painful swelling of the skin or mucous membranes, for example of the eyelids, lips, tongue, hands or feet. In some patients, angioedema can occur in the abdominal organs, leading to colicky pain, sometimes including vomiting or diarrhea. In other patients, angioedema can occur in the throat, leading to breathing difficulties. All these forms of angioedema can last for several hours to days)
Do or did any other family members (related by blood) suffer also from recurrent angioedema?
Do or did you experience repeatedly symptoms other than angioedema (e.g. fatigue, malaise, non-itchy skin rashes) approximately one hour or longer before the actual angioedema symptoms start?
Do or did you experience repeatedly severe and extremely painful abdominal attacks?
Did most of the swellings in the past affect the tongue?
Did or do the swellings often last for 3 days or longer, until they resolve completely?
Do or did you suffer from recurrent itchy wheals?
(Wheals are elevated, red and itchy skin eruptions that look like stinging nettle burns, see below for an example)
Card image cap

Picture of a wheal. Wheals can be smaller or larger, too

Are your symptoms of angioedema well controlled by the use of antihistamines, cortisone or omalizumab?
(Antihistamines are antiallergic tablets, e.g. loratadine or cetirizine. Omalizumab (Xolair) is an every-4-weeks-injection for the treatment of chronic urticaria)