The number of flares patients experience, regardless of their severity, increases the risk of damage accrual, independently of other known risk factors.

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The aim of this study was to identify the demographic and clinical features of patients with ANCA-associated vasculitides (AAVs) in a Peruvian tertiary referral hospital.Methods: Medical records of patients with AAV according to classification criteria or diagnosed by an experienced rheumatologist, and covering the period between January 1990 and December 2019, were reviewed. Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), microscopic polyangiitis (MPA), eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA), and renal-limited vasculitis (RLV) were included. Demographic factors (age at diagnosis, sex), disease duration, clinical manifestations (per organ involvement), creatinine level at diagnosis (milligram per deciliter), ANCA status, diagnosis, 2009 Five Factor Score, disease categorization, and treatment were recorded.Results: Two hundred twelve patients were included. Their female-to-male ratio was 1.9:1 (139 [65.6%]/73 [34.4%]), and their mean (SD) age at diagnosis was 59.2 (12.5) years. One hundred fifty-eight patients (74.5%) had MPA, 42 (19.8%) GPA, 7 (3.3%) RLV, and 5 (2.4%) EGPA. Neurological, lung, and renal involvements were the most frequently affected systems. Myeloperoxidase preferentially occurred in MPA (82.5%), whereas proteinase 3 did occur in GPA (79.5%). Microscopic polyangiitis patients were older (61.1 [11.5] years). Female sex predominated in MPA and RLV (2.4:1 and 6:1, respectively), but the opposite was the case for EGPA (1:4). Ear-nose-throat and ocular involvement were more frequent in GPA (both p's < 0.001), and neurological and cardiovascular involvement were more frequent in EGPA (p < 0.001 and p = 0.002, respectively).Conclusions: This is one of the largest series of AAV patients in Latin America. Overall, female sex predominated. Microscopic polyangiitis was the most frequent AAV, and myeloperoxidase-ANCA was the most frequent antibody in Peruvian AAV population.

Objective To examine the role of place of residency in the expression and outcomes of SLE in a multi-ethnic Latin American cohort. Patients and Methods SLE patients (<2 years of diagnosis) from 34 centers constitute this cohort. Residency was dichotomized into rural and urban, cut-off: 10,000 inhabitants. Socio-demographic, clinical/laboratory, and mortality rates were compared between them using descriptive tests. The influence of place of residency on disease activity at diagnosis and renal disease was examined by multivariable regression analyses. Results 122 (8.6%) of 1426 patients were rural residents. Their median age (onset, diagnosis) were 23.5 and 25.5 years; 85 (69.7%) patients were Mestizos, 28 (22.9%) Caucasians and 9 (7.4%) African-Latin Americans. Rural residents were more frequently younger at diagnosis, Mestizo and uninsured; they also had fewer years of education and a lower socioeconomic status, exhibited hypertension and renal disease more frequently, and had higher levels of disease activity at diagnosis; they used methotrexate, cyclophosphamide pulses, and hemodialysis more frequently than urban patients. Disease activity over time, renal damage, overall damage and the proportion of deceased patients were comparable in both, rural and urban patients.. In multivariable analyses, rural residency was associated with high levels of disease activity at diagnosis (OR 1.65, 95% CI 1.06–2.57) and renal disease occurrence (OR 1.77, 95% CI 1.00–3.11). Conclusions Rural residency associates with Mestizo ethnicity, lower socioeconomic status, and renal disease occurrence. It also plays a role on disease activity at diagnosis and kidney involvement but not on the other end-points examined.

there was a positive association between prolactin levels and the SDI (overall and its renal and cardiac/peripheral vascular domains), independently of other well-known risk factors.