VIDEO: Challenges in vasculitis care shows where researchers should focus

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There are a number of challenges in managing patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis, and one is that we continue to see high relapse rates and ANCA vasculitis in the kidney is diagnosed very late in the course of their disease.

In regard to the kidney, the disease is asymptomatic, and it’s diagnosed when we do urinary testing, and we find hematuria and proteinuria. So, it’d be helpful if we had markers that could help us with earlier diagnosis and screening that would be more beneficial for early treatment. Also, we want research focusing on better treatment options. So now that we know that complement is affected, and we have newer medications such as the C5A receptor inhibitors, we want to continue to look into better treatments to improve outcomes, especially in patients with severe kidney disease.