Factors that predict in-hospital mortality in eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis

Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) is a rare systemic small-vessel vasculitis associated with asthma, eosinophilia, and necrotizing vasculitis. EGPA is potentially life-threatening and often involves peripheral neuropathies, peptic ulcers, cerebral vessel disease, and cardiovascular disease. However, there is limited understanding of the prognostics factors for patients with EGPA. We investigated the clinical features and factors affecting patients' in-hospital mortality, using a national inpatient database in Japan.

We retrospectively collected data of EGPA patients who required hospitalization between July 2010 and March 2013, using the Diagnosis Procedure Combination database. We evaluated EGPA patients' characteristics and performed multivariate logistic regression analyses to assess the factors associated with in-hospital mortality.

A total of 2195 EGPA patients were identified. The mean age was 61.9 years, 42.1% (924/2195) were male, and 41.6% (914/2195) had emergent admission. In-hospital deaths occurred in 97/2195 patients (4.4%). Higher in-hospital mortality was associated with age older than 65 years, disturbance of consciousness on admission, unscheduled admission, respiratory disease, cardio-cerebrovascular disease, renal disease, sepsis, and malignant disease on admission. Lower mortality was associated with female gender and peripheral neuropathies.

Our study revealed the clinical features of EGPA patients who required hospitalization and the factors associated with their mortality. These results may be useful for physicians when assessing disease severity or treatments for hospitalized EGPA patients.