News

Antibody-targeted approach bests plasma exchange in AAV: Study

An approach that removes specific antibodies from a person’s blood is better than a standard, more general blood-cleaning procedure called plasma exchange at clearing the self-reactive antibodies that drive ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV). That’s according to a small study in China that looked at data from AAV patients with severe…

Healthy pregnancy possible, especially if disease in remission

Rates of preterm delivery, lower-than-normal birth weight, and maternal disease flares are higher among pregnant women with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) than in the general population, according to a review study. Despite this, “most pregnancies resulted in healthy newborns and manageable, non-life-threatening flares of AAV,” the researchers wrote, suggesting that “pregnancy…

Pulmonary hypertension triples mortality risk in AAV: Study

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…