The Improved Kidney Risk Score in ANCA-Associated Vasculitis for Clinical Practice and Trials

What is it about?

Vasculitis is a term used to describe a group of rare diseases that inflame and damage blood vessels. ANCA are the antibodies found in the blood. Kidneys are often affected by vasculitis and can scar undetected for months or be quickly destroyed within days. Untreated, vasculitis is fatal. _x000D_ Strong medication from cancer care is used to treat ANCA vasculitis and side effects are common. Patients are susceptible to infections and are three-times more likely to die of an infection than from vasculitis._x000D_ Patients of all ages, often with other health problems are affected, but treatments are not designed for the individual. We previously created a tool to estimate the risk of kidney failure, called the ANCA renal risk score (ARRS). This score uses blood and tissue results. It was tested around the world in smaller validation studies and found to accurately tell when kidneys stop working. Here, we collected the largest cohort of over 1500 patients to validate and improve the score. We refined the score and increased its power to predict kidney outcome. We propose to use the updated version AKRiS.

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