# Correlation between antiphospholipid antibodies and renal involvement in children with Henoch-Schönlein purpura: A cross-sectional study

## TL;DR

This study found that antiphospholipid antibodies are more common in children with IgA vasculitis who develop kidney problems, suggesting a potential link.

## Contribution

The study identifies a novel association between antiphospholipid antibodies and renal involvement in pediatric IgA vasculitis patients.

## Key findings

- 29.16% of patients developed renal involvement within six months.
- aPLs were significantly more common in patients with renal involvement (64.28%) than without (17.64%).
- Age and aPL positivity were significant predictors of renal involvement in logistic regression analysis.

## Abstract

Renal involvement is the most damaging long-term complication of Immunoglobulin-A (IgA) vasculitis. In the lack of a definite predictive biomarker for renal involvement, antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) have been proposed in recent years.

In this prospective cohort of 48 pediatric patients who were admitted with IgA vasculitis from September 2015 to June 2017, two serum samples were taken 12 weeks apart to detect Anti-Phospholipid antibodies. All patients were followed-up for renal involvement for six months.

Renal involvement occurred in 14 out of 48 patients with IgA vasculitis (29.16%). APLs were positive in nine out of 14 patients with IgA vasculitis and renal involvement (64.28%), in contrast to only six out of 34 patients with IgA vasculitis without renal involvement (17.64%). The presence of aPL antibodies was statistically associated with renal involvement (P=0.002). Although, the relationship between both sex (P=0.025) and age (P=0.046) with aPL positivity was statistically significant, performing a modified logistic regression test, the odds ratio was significant between the groups with and without renal involvement only in term of age and aPL positivity).

The presence of aPL antibodies was statistically associated with renal involvement. We found a significant relationship between the age and aPL positivity. Hence, we need multicenter, more extensive cohort studies to reach a better and more accurate conclusion on the relationship between serum aPLs and renal involvement in IgA vasculitis patients.