From HAE Paraguay
In 2023, HAE Paraguay managed to contact the Health Sciences Research Institute, the Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud (IICS) of the National University of Asunción (UNA), specifically with researchers from the Department of Immunology. A project entitled “Study of the C1 plasma inhibitor in patients with and without a diagnosis of hereditary angioedema for implementation of laboratory detection” was agreed. The reagents for the study of the quantitative and functional C1-inhibitor were financed by the University and also by the Binding Site LATAM – Scientific Competition.
In Paraguay, diagnostic testing was not available, and very few patients had laboratory detection and covered its high cost outside the country. The objective of the study was to evaluate the behavior of plasma C1-INH in patients with and without a previous diagnosis of HAE for the implementation of laboratory detection. Currently, this project is underway, and 30 patients with clinical manifestations of HAE were studied, all of them in the age range of 5 to 67 years, and registered in HAE Paraguay. Only 6 of these patients already had a laboratory diagnosis of HAE. Of the remaining 24, 12 presented a decreased result of the quantitative C1-inhibitor, compatible with HAE type 1.
With this study, it will be possible to develop and implement the laboratory test to diagnose HAE in Paraguay, making it available to the community at an affordable cost, which, over time, will strengthen the diagnosis and therapeutic management of patients with HAE at the local level.
