Significance of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody in adult patients with Henoch-Schönlein purpura presenting mainly with gastrointestinal symptoms

Table 1 Clinical scores for HSP

Symptom	Score
Purpura
below the umbilicus	1+
above the umbilicus	2+
Abdominal pain
Stool occult blood < 2+	1+
Stool occult blood > 2+	2+
Joint pain	1+
Renal involvement
Urinary occult blood 1+	1+
Urinary occult blood 2+	2+
Urinary occult blood 3+	3+

Table 2 Comparison of demographic data between HSP patients and controls

	HSP	Control	P value
n	28	27	NS1
Gender (male/female)	15/13	11/16	NS
Age (yr) (mean ± SD)	29.8 ± 8.1	30.1 ± 8.6	NS
Age range (yr)	20-46	22-52
Symptoms
Abdominal pain (%)	53.6	59.8	NS
Hematochezia (%)	46.4	51.2	NS
Diarrhea (%)	21.4	32.1	NS
Vomiting (%)	10.7	14.8	NS

¹NS denotes no significance.

Table 3 ANCA detected by IIF in HSP patients and controls

	+ANCA by IIF	- ANCA by IIF
HSP	9	19
control	0	27

Table 4 Blood creatine and 24 h urinary protein in HSP patients (mean ± SD)

	Blood creatine (&mgr;mol/L)	24 h urinary protein (g/L)
ANCA (+)	320 ± 22 (3.64 ± 0.25 mg/dL)	1.78 ± 0.12
ANCA (-)	104 ± 15b (1.19 ± 0.16 mg/dL)	0.78 ± 0.32c

^bP = 0.01,

^cP = 0.03.

Table 5 Characteristics of the two groups

Symptom sequence	Positive ANCA (%)	HSP score	Abdominal pain (%)	Diarrhea (%)	Hematochezia (%)
Purpura before abdominal symptoms	33.3	5.02 ± 1.23	55.6	22.2	38.9
Purpura after abdominal symptoms	40.0	6.23 ± 1.08	60.0	40.0	60.0