News

Disease symptoms in AAV vary by age at diagnosis, sex, study finds

Disease symptoms among people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) were found to vary by age at diagnosis and biological sex, according to data from more than 1,100 Scandinavian patients. “We identified significant differences in clinical presentation of the disease between female and male patients and between patients with a young…

Review study highlights AAV-ILD patients’ mortality risk factors

A higher risk of death among AAV patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) is significantly associated with older age, episodes of sudden symptom worsening, and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA), a common type of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV). That’s according to a review of published studies that also pointed…

Study IDs new potential immune targets in MPO-related AAV

Researchers have identified new contributors to the abnormal immune responses against the myeloperoxidase (MPO) enzyme that drive ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) in some patients. Specifically, these abnormal responses are marked by high numbers of memory B-cells that produce an antibody type called immunoglobulin M (IgM). Memory B-cells are immune cells crucial to…

AAV prevalence high among Indigenous peoples of Alaska: Study

The frequency of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) among the Indigenous peoples of Alaska is high compared with other populations worldwide, especially the granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) form of the disease,  a study reports. Native Alaskans and American Indians in Alaska with AAV also may have more severe clinical features at…

GPX-3 may be blood biomarker of AAV disease activity: Study

Lower blood levels of glutathione peroxidase-3 (GPX-3), an antioxidant enzyme, are significantly associated with greater disease activity and blood vessel damage in people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), a study found. “We demonstrated that [blood] GPX-3 concentration at diagnosis has the potential to be a novel biomarker that can assess…

Nucala lowers disease activity, steroid use with EGPA in real world

Long-term treatment with Nucala (mepolizumab) reduces disease activity and helps to prevent progressive organ damage in people with eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA), the rarest type of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), data from a real-world study show. Finding among patients in Spain also showed that most using Nucala were able…

Scientists ID 4 MPA subtypes for better predicting patient outcomes

Researchers in Japan have identified four distinct subtypes of microscopic polyangiitis, or MPA — a type of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) — that are associated with different clinical characteristics, which may help in better predicting, and improving, patient outcomes, according to the team. One subtype was marked mainly by kidney…

Blood sulfatide count at AAV diagnosis may predict kidney failure

People with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) patients whoo have low blood levels of sulfatides, a type of fatty molecule, are significantly more likely to have future kidney failure, a single-center study in South Korea indicates. The predictive potential of blood sulfatide levels was independent of direct associations with kidney involvement…