Clinical features, treatment and outcome of pediatric patients with severe cutaneous manifestations in IgA vasculitis: Multicenter international study

Objective: IgA vasculitis (IgAV) (formerly Henoch-Schönlein Purpura, HSP) rarely causes severe skin lesions in children. The purpose of the research was to determine whether severe skin manifestations were associated with a more severe disease course. Methods: Severe cutaneous manifestations were defined as presence of hemorrhagic vesicles, bullae, ulcerations and/or necroses. Data were collected retrospectively from 12 international tertiary university medical centers. Results: A total of 64 patients with the most severe skin changes in IgAV/HSP and median (Q1, Q3) age of 8.08 (5.08, 11.92) years at the disease onset were compared with 596 IgAV/HSP patients without these manfiestations and median (Q1, Q3) age of 6.33 (4.50, 8.92) years. The patients with severe cutaneous manifestations were older in comparison to other patients with IgAV/HSP (p<0.001), they developed nephritis more frequently (40.6% vs. 20.6%, p = 0.001) with worse outcome of renal disease (p = 0.001). This group of patients also had higher frequencies of severe gastrointestinal complications like hematochezia, massive bleeding and/or intussusception (29.3% vs. 14.8%, p<0.001). D-dimer concentrations were significantly higher in these patients (4.60 mg/L vs. 2.72 mg/L, p = 0.003) and they had more frequent need for treatment with systemic glucocorticoids (84.4% vs. 37.2%, p<0.001) in comparison with the control group. Further multivariate analysis showed that severe cutaneous changes were associated with higher risk of developing nephritis [OR=3.1 (95%CI 1.04–9.21), p = 0.042] and severe gastrointestinal complications [OR=3.65 (95%CI 1.08–12.37), p = 0.038]. Conclusion: Patients with IgAV/HSP and severe skin manifestations had a more severe clinical course and more frequently required glucocorticoids compared to classic IgAV/HSP patients.