Orolingual angioedema during or after thrombolysis for cerebral ischemia

Abstract

Background and Purpose - Orolingual angioedema (OLAE) is a life-threatening complication of intravenous thrombolysis. Our objective was to compare outcomes of patients with and without OLAE. Methods - We prospectively included consecutive patients who received intravenous thrombolysis for cerebral ischemia at Lille University Hospital. We examined tongue and lips every 15 minutes during thrombolysis and ≤30 minutes after. We evaluated the 3-month outcome with the modified Rankin scale (mRS) and compared outcomes of patients with and without OLAE. Results - Of 923 consecutive patients, 20 (2.2%) developed OLAE. None of them needed oro-tracheal intubation. They were more likely to be under angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (adjusted odds ratio [adjOR], 3.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.6-9.7; P=0.005) to have total insular infarcts (OR, 5.0; 95% CI, 1.5-16.5; P=0.004) and tended to develop more symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhages. Results concerning angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors were not modified after adjustment for propensity scores (OR, 4.4; 95% CI, 1.6-11.9; P=0.004) or matched analysis based on propensity scores (OR, 3.4; 95% CI, 1.3-8.1; P=0.010). Patients with OLAE did not significantly differ at 3 months for the proportion of patients with mRS score of 0 to 1 (adjOR, 0.9; 95% CI, 0.3-2.1), mRS score of 0 to 2 (adjOR, 0.8; 95% CI, 0.1-1.8), and death (adjOR, 1.1; 95% CI, 0.3-3.8). Conclusions - OLAE occurs in 1 of 50 patients who receive intravenous thrombolysis, 1 of 10 in case of total insular infarct, and 1 of 6 if they are under angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors. Their long-term outcome does not differ from that of other patients.