• Matthias Papo, Renato A Sinico, Vítor Teixeira, Nils Venhoff, Maria-Letizia Urban, Michele Iudici, Juliane Mahrhold, Francesco Locatelli, Giulia Cassone, Franco Schiavon, Benjamin Seeliger, Thomas Neumann, Claus Kroegel, Matthieu Groh, Chiara Marvisi, Maxime Samson, Thomas Barba, David Jayne, Arianna Troilo, Jens Thiel, Bernhard Hellmich, Sara Monti, Carlomaurizio Montecucco, Carlo Salvarani, Jean-Emmanuel Kahn, Bernard Bonnotte, Cécile-Audrey Durel, Xavier Puéchal, Luc Mouthon, Loïc Guillevin, Giacomo Emmi, Augusto Vaglio, and Benjamin Terrier.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Cochin Hospital, National Referral Center for Rare Systemic Autoimmune Diseases, Paris University, Paris, France.
• Rheumatology (Oxford). 2020 Dec 21.

ObjectivesOnly a third of patients with eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) are ANCA-positive, mainly directed against MPO. ANCA directed against PR3 are rarely found in EGPA. We aimed to examine the significance of PR3-ANCA in EGPA.MethodsWe set up a retrospective European multicentre cohort including 845 patients. Baseline characteristics and outcomes were analysed and compared according to ANCA status.ResultsANCA status was available for 734 patients: 508 (69.2%) ANCA-negative, 210 (28.6%) MPO-ANCA and 16 (2.2%) PR3-ANCA. At baseline, PR3-ANCA patients, compared with those with MPO-ANCA and ANCA-negative, less frequently had active asthma (69% vs 91% and 93%, P = 0.003, respectively) and peripheral neuropathy (31% vs 71% and 47%, P < 0.0001), more frequently had cutaneous manifestations (63% vs 38% and 34%, P = 0.03) and pulmonary nodules (25% vs 10% and 8%, P = 0.046), and lower median eosinophil count (1450 vs 5400 and 3224/mm3, P < 0.0001). Vasculitis relapse-free survival was shorter for PR3-ANCA (hazard ratio 6.05, P = 0.005) and MPO-ANCA patients (hazard ratio 1.88, P = 0.0002) compared with ANCA-negative patients.ConclusionPR3-ANCA EGPA patients differ from those with MPO-ANCA and negative ANCA, and share clinical features with granulomatosis with polyangiitis. This suggests that PR3-ANCA EGPA could be a particular form of PR3-ANCA-associated vasculitis.© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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