News

About one-quarter of adults with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) in which their lungs are affected have small airway disease (SAD), which targets the tiny airways in the lungs, according to a study in China. Younger age, the presence of clumps of inflammatory cells called granulomas in the lungs, and other…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Sana Biotechnology’s investigational new drug (IND) application requesting a Phase 1 clinical trial of its investigational cell therapy SC291 in people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) and other autoimmune diseases. “Our goal is to develop SC291 for patients with multiple…

In rare cases, ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) can result in muscle weakness that affects mainly the trunk and the muscles closest to the trunk due to blood vessel inflammation within the muscles, a study shows. Comprehensive tests of four AAV patients with this distinct clinical feature show that muscle symptoms…

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…

Nearly all ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) patients undergoing a bronchoscopy — a minimally invasive procedure to examine the lungs and air passages — at disease onset show lung involvement, a study reported. Bleeding from the alveoli, the tiny air sacs in the lungs where gases are exchanged, also was the most…

Blood levels of ANCAs — the disease-causing antibodies that give ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) its name — can be used to help distinguish AAV from other conditions in which ANCAs might also be present, a study showed. Higher levels of the antibodies at diagnosis also were significantly tied to greater…

The severity of anemia, or low levels of oxygen-carrying hemoglobin, is significantly associated with certain kidney lesions in people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) and kidney involvement, a study showed. These findings “reflect an additional aspect of anemia pathophysiology [disease mechanisms] in ANCA-associated renal vasculitis,” the researchers wrote. The study,…

Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) is the most common type of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) in Italy and is linked to worse symptoms and higher mortality and healthcare costs than microscopic polyangiitis (MPA), another common AAV type, a study finds. Using immunosuppressive glucocorticoids was also associated with higher costs…

Treatment with rituximab has a similar efficacy to cyclophosphamide — both of them standard immunosuppressive therapies — in reducing short-time mortality in adults with life-threatening ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), a study in Japan found. Moreover, rituximab was associated with a significantly lower risk of fungal infections relative to cyclophosphamide. However,…