Clinical Manifestations of Wegener Granulomatosis in Iranian Ethnicities Using the K-Means Algorithm: A Descriptive Study

Abstract

Introduction Wegener granulomatosis (WG) appears with clinical symptoms, including recurrent respiratory infection, renal manifestations, and nonspecific systemic symptoms. Objective To study the clinical manifestations of WG in Iranian ethnicities, and data on 164 patients were recorded from 2013 to 2018. Methods The data included demographics, symptoms, and the Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score (BVAS). The symptoms involved the following sites: the nose, sinus, glottis, ears, lungs, kidneys, eyes, central nervous system, mucous membranes, skin, heart, stomach, intestine, as well as general symptoms. The clinical manifestations of nine ethnicities were analyzed. Results In total, 48% of the patients were male and 51% were female, with a median age of 51 years. The BVAS was of 15.4, the sites most involved were the sinus (n = 155), nose (n = 126), lungs (n = 125), and ears (n = 107). Gastrointestinal (n = 14) and cardiac (n = 7) involvement were less common. Among the patients, 48.17% were Persian, 13.41% were Azari, 11.17% were Gilaki, 11.17% were Kurd, and 10.9% were Lor. Conclusion Our findings indicated that the sinus, nose, lungs, and ears were the sites most involved, and gastrointestinal and cardiac involvement were less common. In the present study, involvement of the upper and lower respiratory tract was higher than that reported in Western and Asian case series. Moreover, we report for the first time that, in all patients with ear involvement, the left ear was the first to be affected. The clinical manifestations among Iranian ethnicities were not different, and the Gilaki ethnicity had the highest BVAS, mostly because the weather was humid; therefore, in Iran, in areas with humidity, the rate of the disease was higher.