News

The EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases has launched a nationwide National Burden of Rare Disease Survey to measure the full implications, economic and social, of living with rare disease in the United States. People with rare diseases know that the impacts of such conditions extend beyond just medical…

Blood levels of the soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) protein may be a helpful tool for assessing disease severity and prognosis in people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), a new study reports. The study, “The Plasma…

Low levels of the protein alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAT) do not appear to be enough to increase the risk of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) — despite prior associations of AAT deficiency with AAV — according to a new study.

Clinical trials testing new treatments for people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) need more uniformity in the patients they recruit and in the outcome measures used for efficacy assessments, a new review indicates. The review, “Randomized clinical trials in ANCA-associated vasculitis: a systematic analysis of the WHO…

The Vasculitis Foundation awarded its “Dr. Chris Cox-Marinelli Young Investigator Award” — a one-year research grant totaling $49,822 — to Dragana Odobasic, PhD, a research fellow at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. The award is for Odobasic”s research on a subset of specialized immune cells, called…

The Alexion Charitable Foundation has awarded $1.1 million in grants to programs that support those with rare diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization recently announced. The grants will support activities that align with the foundation’s Rare Belonging focus, a set of funding priorities aimed at improving the…

Depression is more common in people with primary systemic vasculitides, including in those with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), than in healthy people, a review study has found.  Depression in vasculitis patients was also significantly associated with a poorer quality of…

Cigarette smoking significantly increases the odds of developing ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), particularly the disease form with antibodies against the myeloperoxidade (MPO) protein, and this risk is stronger in people with greater cigarette exposure, a large database study reported. The study, “Association of Cigarette Smoking With Antineutrophil…

People with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) who have kidney involvement when they are diagnosed are more likely to experience major kidney relapses later, a new study shows. The study also indicates that induction treatment with cyclophosphamide and/or rituximab can protect against these relapses. Titled “Renal involvement…

Guidelines for using rituximab as a maintenance therapy in adults with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) were recently published that, in addition to helping physicians with treatment approaches, highlight areas where more research is needed. “Rituximab for maintenance of remission in ANCA-associated vasculitis: expert consensus guidelines,” was…