Does the presence of ANCA antibodies in patients with newly diagnosed lupus nephritis alter your approach to management?
1 Answer
Mednet Member
Rheumatology · VA Boston Health Care System
Answered on
I've never encountered this, to be honest, but I've always worried about what I would do, since a fair percentage of patients with lupus are reported to have ANCA antibodies thought to have no clinical relevance.
The problem is the "pauci-immune" part of ANCA-associated GN, so that there is no "positive" pathognomonic finding. I've seen several patients in which MPA or GPA was missed because the GN was incorrectly ascribed to IgA nephropathy - which was true on biopsy but not relevant to the cre...
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