School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-25-2022

Abstract

Objectives We examined the response to induction therapy of Hispanic patients with antibody-associated vasculitis (AAV)-related diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH). This study aimed to determine the severity of disease at presentation and the response to induction therapy in our patient population.

Methods We retrospectively reviewed the clinical data of Hispanic patients hospitalized with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) vasculitis between October 1, 2010, and December 31, 2021. We identified 98 Hispanic patients hospitalized with AAV and 19 admitted with AAV-related DAH. The Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score (BVAS) was obtained from all patients on presentation.

Results Based on the 2012 Revised International Chapel Hill Consensus Conference Nomenclature of Vasculitides, 12 patients met the diagnostic criteria for microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) and seven met the criteria for diagnosing granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA). All patients received methylprednisolone therapy. Induction therapy consisted of cyclophosphamide pulse therapy (n=3), cyclophosphamide plus plasmapheresis (PLEX) (n=1), rituximab induction therapy (n=8), and rituximab induction plus plasmapheresis (n=6), and one patient received one dose of cyclophosphamide followed by rituximab plus plasmapheresis. The average BVAS was 25.53 at presentation. Survival at six months included 67% (n=2) treated with cyclophosphamide alone, 75% (n=6) treated with rituximab alone, and 50% (n=3) treated with rituximab plus PLEX. The patient who received an initial loading dose of cyclophosphamide followed by rituximab plus PLEX did survive for six months; however, the patient treated with cyclophosphamide plus PLEX did not have early survival.

Conclusions Hispanic patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis present with a more severe disease burden at presentation based on BVAS. Approximately 37% of our patient population had early death (death at <6 >months) despite adhering to the standard of care for induction therapy. Due to the more significant disease burden at presentation, it is vital to include ethnic minorities in large clinical trials to help improve outcomes in these patient populations.

Comments

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Publication Title

Cureus

DOI

10.7759/cureus.24470

Academic Level

resident

Mentor/PI Department

Internal Medicine

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.