A modern approach to the morphological assessment of nephritis in Henoch–Schonlein purpura (IgA-vasculitis)

Abstract

The authors analyzed clinical and morphological correlations between the manifestations and outcome in nephritis with Henoch– Schönlein purpura and assessed the effect of morphological data on achieving remission as per ISKDC, SQC, MEST-C classification.Patients and methods. 32 patients with nephritis in Henoch–Schönlein purpura (15 girls and 17 boys) were enrolled into retrospective longitudinal single-center study, median of primary admission to the nephrological department was 9.0 y. o. [5; 12 y.]. Clinical features of the onset (age, form of onset, glomerular filtration rate, daily proteinuria, hematuria, serum IgA level) and the course of the disease were analyzed in all children. The morphological data were assessed using such morphological classifications as ISKDC, SQC, MEST-C. A search for statistically significant relationships between clinical and morphological data and a comparative analysis of the influence of each morphological classification on the achievement of remission were carried out.Results. The sum of the SQC scores had a statistically significant effect on the outcome (p=0.006): in patients with complete remission, on average, 4 points were obtained, patients who did not achieve remission had 2 points more. When assessing the likelihood of detecting remission depending on the total score of the Oxford scale using the ROC-analysis, a statistically significant model was obtained (p=0.012). If the total MEST-C score was less than or equal to 3, remission was predicted (=0.032). The sensitivity and specificity of the method were both 75%.Conclusions. The practical application of the Oxford MEST-C classification and the new semi-quantitative SQC classification in comparison with the ISKDC classification for children with nephritis in Henoch–Schönlein purpura is promising for predicting an unfavorable renal outcome.