There have been few studies on mortality for patients living with immunoglobulin A nephropathy, or IgA nephropathy (IgAN), and most did not include matched control groups. In a 2019 study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, a research team at Örebro University Hospital in Sweden began to fill in this knowledge gap on life expectancy for IgaN patients.*

What did the study entail?

The team compared 3,622 patients with IgAN and 18,041 controls who were matched for age, sex, and year of diagnosis. 

The results showed that:

• Patients with IgAN had a 53% higher risk of death from all causes. 
• IgAN patients lived six fewer years on average,
• The overall death rate among IgAN patients was highest in the first year after diagnosis but low for those still in the early stages of the disease.
• The risk of mortality didn’t increase for IgAN patients until they reached kidney failure.
• There was no significant difference between those with kidney failure from IgAN and those with kidney failure not related to IgAN.
• Patients with IgAN had a 59% higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

According to Dr. Simon Jarrick, lead author of the study, the findings were “surprising” and go against “the dominating concept that the majority of [chronic kidney disease] patients die before progression” to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and kidney failure.

Other considerations

To gather input about behavioral, environmental, and genetic factors, the researchers also compared the IgAN patients’ information with that of the patients’ spouses and siblings. What they discovered is that first-degree relatives of IgAN patients have triple the risk for kidney failure. 

This can have serious consequences for both patients and their families, wrote Richard J. Glassock, M.D., of the University of California, Los Angeles, in his commentary on the study. “The possibility that first-degree relatives of patients with IgAN face an enhanced risk of ESRD,” Glassock stated, “should raise a yellow flag of caution for using such subjects as live donors for kidney transplantation.” 

*Persaud, N. (2019, Apr. 15). IgA Nephropathy Shortens Life Expectancy. Renal and Urology News. https://www.renalandurologynews.com/home/news/nephrology/chronic-kidney-disease-ckd/iga-nephropathy-shortens-life-expectancy/