News

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) therapy appears to be an effective and relatively safe option for people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), according to real-life study of its use in Spain. All of its 28 AAV patients were resistant to conventional treatments and/or had — or were suspected of having — an…

Developing pulmonary hypertension (PH), which occurs when pressure in the blood vessels that supply the lungs becomes too high, more than triples the mortality risk among people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), a study finds. PH may be relatively more common in AAV patients than understood, occurring in about…

Blood levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), an antioxidant enzyme, are significantly lower in people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) than those without this disease, and poorer outcomes are found in patients with greater reductions, a study reported. Specifically, lower blood SOD levels significantly associated with more inflammation, a greater likelihood…

Nearly three-quarters of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) patients treated with rituximab fail to mount an effective immune response against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, following two doses of vaccines. That’s according to data from the U.K.-based OCTAVE trial, which evaluated immune responses to vaccines in patients with reduced immune…

Nearly half of eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) patients are able to stop taking glucocorticoids after a median of nine months on Nucala (mepolizumab), a small study in Japan suggests. This was true even for those with severe symptoms of this rare type of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV),…

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…

Among people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), those with central diabetes insipidus are more frequently diagnosed with granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), a type of AAV, according to a study in China. Central diabetes insipidus, or CDI, is a rare disease characterized by excessive thirst and excessive urine. Patients with…

Researchers in Korea have identified a new index that can predict all-cause mortality in non-obese people with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV). The index accounts for blood levels of fatty molecules called triglycerides and blood sugar, as well as body mass index (BMI, a ratio of height and…

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…

Immunosuppressants may help prevent subglottic stenosis — a condition wherein part of the windpipe becomes tight — from returning in people with a type of ANCA-related vasculitis called granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), a small Italian study suggests. The study, “Role of systemic immunosuppression on subglottic stenosis in granulomatosis…