Over four days in the last part of May 2019, an international scientific conference on C1-INH deficiency was held for the 11th time in Budapest, Hungary. This year, another word was added to the title of the event, now reading “11th C1-INH Deficiency & Angioedema Workshop”.
“This designation better reflects the agenda of the conference, because it has become a forum for discussing topics also on other bradykinin-mediated hereditary and acquired angioedemas, in addition to C1-inhibitor deficiency”, says conference chairs Henriette Farkas and Lilian Varga.
Based on the 82 submitted abstracts, the programme included 36 oral and 46 poster presentations. These were supplemented by lectures delivered by Patricia Pozo-Rosich (Spain) on the relationship between migraine and angioedema, as well as by Michael Kirschfink (Germany) on the standardization of the laboratory methods applied for complement testing. Furthermore, Avner Reshef (Israel) summarized the prodromal symptoms of angioedema.
By tradition, the agenda of the conference comprised consensus meetings and roundtable discussions intended to facilitate the adoption of international guidelines. This year, Anastasios E. Germenis (Greece) moderated the roundtable session “International consensus on the use of genetics in the management of HAE”, whereas Teresa Caballero (Spain) lead the discussion on “International consensus on the gynecologic and obstetric management of female patients with HAE – updates”. Further, the HAE Global Registry Work Group established to develop an international database on HAE held its meeting during the conference. Also, the delegates of the International Hereditary Angioedema Nursing Organization held a consultative meeting on improving the state-of-the-art care of angioedema patients.
This time some 330 delegates from 39 countries took part in the conference. Researchers, medical professionals, drug development specialists, members of patients’ organizations, and nurses were represented in the audience, which over the past two decades has become an active and creative community.
The 2019 “For HAE Patients” award was presented to Teresa Caballero, who delivered a presentation in the festive session of the first conference day. On the fourth and final conference day, Allen Kaplan (the United States of America) summarized for the audience all the topics and findings discussed at the 11th C1-INH Deficiency & Angioedema Workshop.
