Clinical Manifestations of Korean Adult Patients with Henoch-Schonlein Purpura / 대한류마티스학회지

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the clinical data and analyzed the significant prognostic factors for outcomes in Korean adult patients with Henoch-Schonlein Purpura (HSP). METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 52 patients over 20 years-old, who visited the Yonsei University Severance Hospital from December 1999 to November 2009, and fulfilled the classification criteria for HSP. We investigated the epidemiologic data, clinical features, renal biopsy findings, laboratory results and disease outcomes. RESULTS: The median age was 43.5 (20~83) years old and 29 out of 52 patients (55.8%) were male. HSP exhibited seasonal variation and most frequently developed in winter (42.3%), followed by spring (25.0%). Upper respiratory infection was the most common known preceding event for HSP development. Skin manifestations were observed in all subjects, followed by kidney (80.8%), gastro-intestine (57.7%) and joints (26.9%). After a median follow-up period 14.5 (1~227) months, 12 patients experienced HSP relapse (23.1%), and 7 patients had chronic renal failure (13.4%). Univariate analysis showed that renal insufficiency (p=0.002) and nephritic syndrome (p=0.026) at diagnosis were significantly related to the development of chronic renal failure. Of the two parameters, only initial renal insufficiency was found to be a significant predictive value for chronic renal failure (OR=28.7, p=0.001, 95% confidential interval 3.6~225.3). CONCLUSION: Renal insufficiency at diagnosis may be a useful predictive factor for progression to chronic renal failure in Korean adult patients with HSP.