Investigation on the relationship between BVAS and variables tested
In patient group, Spearman correlation analysis shown that MPO-AAV disease activity measured with BVAS statistically significantly correlated with the level of percentage of PAD4+ neutrophil in all neutrophils, MFI of PAD4+neutrophils, NETs, C5a and MPO-ANCA (r =0.913, p <0.0001; r =0.881,p <0.0001; r =0.473, p =0.0021;r =0.666, p <0.0001 and r =0.869,p <0.0001, respectively) (Table II). There was neither significant correlation between BVAS and the patient age, and nor between BVAS and disease duration (r =0.011, p =0.9482 andr =0.085, p =0.5865, respectively) (Table II). Nevertheless, multiple linear regression analysis found only percentage of PAD4+ neutrophil and MPO-ANCA had independent correlations with BVAS (p =0.0053 and p =0.0007, respectively) (Table II).