Clinical characteristics of Polish patients with ANCA-associated vasculitides—retrospective analysis of POLVAS registry

Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitides (AAV) are rare small to medium-size vessel systemic diseases. As their clinical picture, organ involvement, and factors influencing outcome may differ between countries and geographical areas, we decided to describe a large cohort of Polish AAV patients coming from several referral centers—members of the Scientific Consortium of the Polish Vasculitis Registry (POLVAS).

We conducted a systematic multicenter retrospective study of adult patients diagnosed with AAV between Jan 1990 and Dec 2016 to analyze their clinical picture, organ involvement, and factors influencing outcome. Patients were enrolled to the study by nine centers (14 clinical wards) from seven Voivodeships populated by 22.3 mln inhabitants (58.2% of the Polish population).

Participating centers included 625 AAV patients into the registry. Their distribution was as follows: 417 patients (66.7%) with GPA, 106 (17.0%) with MPA, and 102 (16.3%) with EGPA. Male-to-female ratios were almost 1:1 for GPA (210/207) and MPA (54/52), but EGPA was twice more frequent among women (34/68). Clinical manifestations and organ involvement were analyzed by clinical phenotype. Their clinical manifestations seem very similar to other European countries, but interestingly, men with GPA appeared to follow a more severe course than the women. Fifty five patients died. In GPA, two variables were significantly associated with death: permanent renal replacement therapy (PRRT) and respiratory involvement (univariate analysis). In multivariate analysis, PRRT (OR = 5.3; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.3–12.2), respiratory involvement (OR = 3.2; 95% CI = 1.06–9.7), and, in addition, age > 65 (OR = 2.6; 95% CI = 1.05–6.6) were independently associated with death. In MPA, also three variables were observed to be independent predictors of death: PRRT (OR = 5.7; 95% CI = 1.3–25.5), skin involvement (OR = 4.4; 95% CI = 1.02–19.6), and age > 65 (OR = 6.3; 95% CI = 1.18–33.7).

In this first multicenter retrospective study of the Polish AAV patients, we have shown that their demographic characteristics, disease manifestations, and predictors of fatal outcome follow the same pattern as those from other European countries, with men possibly suffering from more severe course of the disease.