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Objective. To describe the initial features and long-term outcomes of childhood-onset small vessel and medium vessel systemic necrotizing vasculitides (SNVs), including antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitides (AAVs) and polyarteritis nodosa (PAN).Methods. Data on patients with childhood-onset SNV registered in the French Vasculitis Study Group database were reviewed for demographic characteristics, clinical, laboratory, and histologic features, and outcomes. Disease activity was assessed with the Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score and the Paediatric Vasculitis Activity Score, and damage was scored using the Vasculitis Damage Index. Relapse and survival rates and causes of death were analyzed.Results. Fifty-six patients (35 with AAV and 21 with PAN) (median age at database enrollment 14 years [range 2-17]) were included in the study. The median duration of followup was 96 months (range 1-336); twothirds of the patients were followed up beyond 18 years of age. Six patients (11%) died, mostly of SNV-related causes. Relapse rates ranged from 33% for microscopic polyangiitis to 50% for eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Churg-Strauss) and 83% for granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's), with similar rates among AAV and PAN patients (76% and 75%, respectively); neither overall survival nor relapse-free survival differed significantly between the 2 disease groups. Rates of relapse increased after 18 years of age, both among patients with AAV and among patients with PAN. At the last followup evaluation, AAV patients had more major flares and more severe accrued damage compared with PAN patients.Conclusion. Despite similar relapse rates, patients with childhood-onset AAVs experienced more major flares with more cumulative damage than those with pediatric PAN. Treatments aimed at reducing the rates of mortality and relapse in this patient group need to be developed and assessed.Childhood-onset antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitides (AAVs) and polyarteritis nodosa (PAN), rare systemic necrotizing vasculitides (SNVs), can exhibit clinically and pathologically indistinguishable necrotizing arteritis of medium and small arteries. Estimating the real prevalence of these disorders is difficult. Childhood primary vasculitis is diagnosed in 3% of all children referred to some US pediatric rheumatology clinics. Each US/Canadian pediatric rheumatologist is expected to identify 0-5 new cases annually. Most available 1 Michele Iudici, MD (current address:

ObjectiveA new adult-onset autoinflammatory syndrome has been described, named VEXAS (Vacuoles, E1 Enzyme, X-linked, Autoinflammatory, Somatic). We aimed to compare the clinical characteristics, the laboratory features and the outcomes between idiopathic-relapsing polychondritis (I-RP) and VEXAS-relapsing polychondritis (VEXAS-RP).MethodsPatients from French retrospective multicentre cohort of RP were separated into two groups: a VEXAS-RP and an I-RP.ResultsCompared with patients with I-RP (n=40), patients with VEXAS-RP (n=55) were men (96% vs 30%, p<0.001) and were older at diagnosis (66 vs 44 years, p<0.001). They had a greater prevalence of fever (60% vs 10%, p<0.001), of skin lesions (82% vs 20%, p<0.001), of ocular involvement (57% vs 28%, p=0.01), of pulmonary infiltrates (46% vs 0%, p<0.001), of heart involvement (11% vs 0%, p=0.0336) and with higher median C-reactive protein levels (64 mg/L vs 10 mg/L, p<0.001). Seventy-five per cent of the patients with VEXAS-RP had myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) versus none in I-RP group. The glucocorticoids use, and the number of steroid sparing agents were similar in both groups, but patients with VEXAS-RP had more frequent refractory disease (remission obtained in 27% vs 90%, p<0001). VEXAS-RP was associated with higher risk of death: six patients (11%) died in the VEXAS-RP group after a median follow-up of 37 months and none in the I-RP group after a median follow-up of 92 months (p<0.05).ConclusionWe report the largest cohort of VEXAS-RP, characterised by high prevalence of male sex, fever, skin lesion, ocular involvement, pulmonary infiltration, heart involvement, older age and MDS association.

for the French Vasculitis Study Group and the European EGPA Study Group Objective. To describe the efficacy and safety of biologics for the treatment of eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA). Methods. A retrospective European collaborative study was conducted in patients with EGPA who received treatment with biologics for refractory and/or relapsing disease. Results. Among the 147 patients with EGPA included in the study, 63 received rituximab (RTX), 51 received mepolizumab (MEPO), and 33 received omalizumab (OMA). At the time of inclusion, the median Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score (BVAS) was 8.5 (interquartile range [IQR] 5-13) in the RTX group, while the median BVAS in the OMA group was 2 (IQR 1-4.5) and the median BVAS in the MEPO group was 2 (IQR 1-5). In patients receiving RTX, the median BVAS declined both at 6 months (median 1, IQR 0-4.5) and at 12 months (median 0, IQR 0-2), and the frequency of remission, partial response, treatment failure, and stopping treatment due to adverse events was 49%, 24%, 24%, and 3%, respectively. For the treatment of glucocorticoid (GC)-dependent asthma, patients who received MEPO had a much better GC-sparing effect and overall response than did patients who received OMA. The frequency of remission, partial response, treatment failure, and stopping treatment due to adverse events was 15%, 33%, 48%, and 4%, respectively, in the OMA group and 78%, 10%, 8%, and 4%, respectively, in the MEPO group. Remission rates at 12 months were 76% and 82% among patients receiving MEPO at a doses of 100 mg and 300 mg, respectively. Conclusion. These results suggest that RTX could be effective in treating relapses of EGPA vasculitis. MEPO is highly effective with a good safety profile in patients with GC-dependent asthma. Our data suggest that 100 mg MEPO monthly could be an acceptable dosage for first-line therapy in selected instances of EGPA, recognizing, however, that this has not been compared to the validated dosage of 300 mg monthly.