Impact of hypertensive emergency and rare complement variants on the presentation and outcome of atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome

Abstract

A typical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS) is a prototypic thrombotic microangiopathy attributable to complement dysregulation. Hypertensive emergency, characterized by elevation of systolic (>180 mmHg) or diastolic (>120 mmHg) blood pressure together with end-organ damage, can cause thrombotic microangiopathy which may mimic aHUS. We retrospectively evaluated the clinical, biological and complement genetic characteristics of 76 and 61 aHUS patients with and without hypertensive emergency, respectively. Patients with hypertensive emergency-aHUS were more frequently males, with neurological involvement, and a slightly higher hemoglobin level. At least one rare complement variant was identified in 51.3% (39/76) and 67% (41/61) patients with or without hypertensive emergency, respectively (P=0.06). In both groups, renal prognosis was severe with 23% and 40% of patients reaching end-stage renal disease after a 5-year follow-up (P=0.1). The 5-year renal survival was 77% in patients without hypertensive emergency or a complement variant, and below 25% in the three groups of patients with hypertensive emergency and/or a complement variant (P=0.02). Among patients without hypertensive emergency, the 5-year renal survival was 100% vs 40% in those treated or not with eculizumab, respectively (P<0.001). Conversely, the 5-year renal survival of patients with hypertensive emergency was 46% vs 23% in those treated or not with eculizumab, respectively (P=0.18). In conclusion, information on the presence or absence of hypertensive emergency and rare complement variants is essential to stratify the long-term renal prognosis of patients with aHUS.