Cardiovascular disease in ANCA-associated vasculitis

The risk of cardiovascular events is increased in patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis by approximately 65%. In order to develop preventive strategies, pathophysiological pathways for the increased cardiovascular risk should be elucidated. More knowledge on predictive factors for cardiovascular events will be a first step towards targeted treatment. Therefore, our main objective is to identify predictive factors for cardiovascular events.

Patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis that are currently being treated at the Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto Canada and the Northwest Clinics, Alkmaar the Netherlands will be recruited for a cross-sectional cardiovascular risk assessment. Disease specific characteristics and cardiovascular risk parameters will be collected. Subjects’ status will be updated on a yearly basis, for a maximum of 3 years. The primary outcome of this study is a first cardiovascular event. Subjects will be followed up until the first cardiovascular event, lost to follow-up or 3 years, whichever comes first. Multivariable models will be developed for the identification of predictive factors.

We postulate that the increased cardiovascular risk in ANCA-associated vasculitis can be explained by both traditional and disease related risk factors

Year 0, year 1, year 2, year 3

Observational study