News

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…

Blood levels of SOD, an antioxidant enzyme, could mark AAV activity

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…

AAV patients on rituximab respond poorly to COVID-19 vaccination

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…