Swedish study reveals AAV patients face 2x higher cardiovascular and clot risk

A Swedish nationwide study has given clinical weight to a long-held suspicion: people living with ANCA-associated vasculitis carry roughly twice the cardiovascular burden of the general population, a danger that begins accumulating silently before diagnosis is ever made. Researchers at Uppsala University, tracking more than 4,000 patients against tens of thousands of controls and siblings across fifteen years, found that the disease itself — not shared genetics or family environment — drives the elevated risk of heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots. The finding reframes AAV not merely as a