Estimation of BVAS in patients with microscopic polyangiitis in Japan.

The validity of the Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score (BVAS) as an index of disease activity and a predictor of the prognosis and outcome in patients with MPA has not yet been established in Japan. We conducted a retrospective study of the data of 73 patients with MPA who were followed up for at least 2 years. We divided the patients into two groups according to the BVAS, namely, the high-BVAS group (≥16) and the low-BVAS group (<16), and compared the clinical characteristics.

Clinical outcome and prognosis of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis in Japan.

Background/aims: We conducted a broad survey of 99 patients with anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis and investigated both prognosis and outcomes.

Methods: Clinical data evaluated were age, sex, patient survival, renal survival, serum albumin, serum creatinine, urinary protein, hematuria, C-reactive protein (CRP), ANCA titer, IgG and the Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score (BVAS).

Results: The patient survival rate at 6 months after onset was 84.

[Adult male with chronic renal failure due to reflux nephropathy that was possibly induced by neurogenic bladder since childhood].

A 38-year-old male with impaired renal function and serious anemia was admitted to our hospital. He had suffered from a disorder of urination since early childhood and been diagnosed as having neurogenic bladder by an urologist when he was 20 years old. Since February 2007, general fatigue emerged and gradually worsened.

Fatal diffuse pulmonary arterial thrombosis as a complication of nephrotic syndrome.

A 21-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of leg edema. Because laboratory findings revealed massive proteinuria and hypoproteinemia, he was diagnosed as having nephritic syndrome caused by minimal change disease. He was given a continuous heparin infusion and intravenous steroid therapy, at a prednisolone dose of 1 mg/kg per day, and his condition gradually improved.

Achievement of the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy guideline targets for mineral metabolism measures: one Japanese university center result.

A consensus conference for the Guidelines for the Management of Secondary Hyperparathyroidism in Chronic Dialysis Patients was conducted in the general meeting of the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy (JSDT) in June 2006, and the guidelines were proposed in the Journal of JSDT in 4 months later. The aim of this study was performed on the status of observance with the data, based on 6 months later proposal of the guidelines. Only 48.

Wegener's granulomatosis complicated by intestinal ulcer due to cytomegalovirus infection and by thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura.

A 61-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital because of acute kidney injury. She complained of general fatigue, appetite loss, and a high fever. Nodular lesions were observed on chest X-rays and there were >100 erythrocytes per high power field in her urinary sediment.

[A case of microscopic polyangitis with sepsis due to pyelonephritis].

A 69-year-old woman, who had been diagnosed with interstitial pneumonia at 66 years of age, was admitted to our hospital because of high fever, purpura occurring on her arms and legs, and renal dysfunction. At the time of admission, her renal function had severely deteriorated (sCr 8.2 mg/dl, 24 h Ccr 6 ml/min), she had a severe high fever (BT 39.