Vasculitis Awareness Month aims to put focus on community voices

May will be an activity-filled month for people living with vasculitis — and for doctors, researchers, and advocates in the field — as the world recognizes Vasculitis Awareness Month (VAM), and International Vasculitis Day on May 15. Vasculitis is a group of rare autoimmune diseases characterized by inflammation and damage…

Lower blood counts of platelets — tiny cell fragments involved in blood clotting — at the time that ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) is diagnosed may be a marker of poorer kidney function and a higher risk of kidney failure, according to a retrospective study from China. Findings suggest that “platelet…

Men with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) are three times more likely to develop cancer, most often that affecting the lungs and the head and neck, than age-matched men in the Turkish population, a study based on patient registry data found. Older age — age 60 or older — at AAV…

The risk of poor outcomes after a kidney transplant is considerably higher for ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) patients with kidney failure than people without the autoimmune disease, ranging from infections and disease relapse to death, a review study reports. But long-term survival rates for those who make it through the…

Tavneos (avacopan) safely and effectively promotes clinical remission in people with newly diagnosed or relapsing ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), according to a multicenter, real-world study in the U.S. The remission rates after a year of treatment were higher than those in the Phase 3 ADVOCATE trial (NCT02994927), whose…

Sinonasal symptoms, as assessed with 22-item Sinonasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22), a patient-reported questionnaire, are more severe when ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) is active than during remission, a study shows. Sinonasal symptoms are those that affect the nose and the sinuses, that is, the air-filled cavities around the eyes and nose.

I recently hit a huge milestone: Eighteen years had passed since my first symptoms of eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA), a type of ANCA-associated vasculitis, began, and it was the 17th anniversary of my diagnosis. My EGPA has been through many stages of growth: sleep-deprived infancy,…

Patrys’ PAT-DX1 and PAT-DX3, two DNA-targeting antibodies known as deoxymabs, can suppress production of the antimicrobial webs implicated in ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) without weakening other immune responses, according to preclinical work. These webs, called neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), are made up of a scaffold of DNA and enzymes…

Having microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) or granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) — the two most common types of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) — better determines patients’ clinical features and outcomes than the type of AAV-driving, self-reactive antibodies they have. That’s according to a study in Spain that showed that GPA was an…

People with the rarest type of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), called eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA), and AAV patients with reduced kidney function are more likely to experience thrombosis (blood clots that disrupt blood flow), according to a single-center study in China. Results also indicated AAV patients with higher…