Marisa Wexler, MS, senior science writer —

People with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) that affects their kidneys are at a significantly increased risk of kidney failure if they show a high proportion of inflamed glomeruli (the organ’s filtering units) on biopsies collected at diagnosis, a study has found. The study, “Renal histopathological predictors of…

High blood levels of the immune protein C4 are significantly associated with greater kidney-specific disease activity and a higher chance of developing kidney failure with microscopic polyangiitis (MPA), the most common type of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), a study shows. For this reason, measuring blood C4 levels may help predict…

A treatment regimen that combines low-dose glucocorticoids and rituximab is just as effective at controlling ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) as a standard regimen of high-dose glucocorticoids and rituximab, according to two-year data from a clinical trial. The long-term findings indicate that, while the efficacy is comparable, the risk of serious…

Researchers in Korea have developed a new system to classify ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) into clusters, and provided an algorithm that can be used for such classification in future clinical studies. “This simple algorithm can incorporate any patient with atypical or nonspecific symptoms and can be easily modified to identify…

Subclinical changes are evident in the small blood vessels in the back of the eye and in the nails of people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) that are not associated with overt eye or nail symptoms, a study showed. Notably, a reduced blood vessel density in patients’ eyes, assessed via…

The prognostic immune nutritional index or PINI — a novel clinical tool based on counts of immune cells and levels of a blood protein called albumin — can be used to help predict the risk of death in people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), a new study shows. For serious…

People with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) who develop low antibody levels associated with rituximab treatment are at high risk of serious infections, a new study from France highlights. “Our real-life study provides useful information to answer a practical question: what is the risk of [serious infection] when initiating or…

A combination of two standardized scores of kidney damage can accurately predict the prognosis of renal disease in people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), a study indicates. This composite measure — the renal risk score (RRS) and the renal vascular lesions (RVL) score — “may serve as a new predictor…

A new statistical model that considers age, disease type, patterns of organ involvement, and lab findings may help predict long-term survival in ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) better than available prognostic systems, a study suggests. The study “Development and internal validation of a model to predict long-term survival of ANCA…

Different types of disease-driving antibodies tend to associate with different symptoms of eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA), the rarest form of ANCA-associated vasculitis. That’s according to the study “Spectrum of ANCA-specificities in eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis. A retrospective multicenter study,” published in Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology.