Table 1 Baseline characteristics of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) studied

	Given TNF-α-blocking therapy		Controls^a
Characteristic	All patients N = 289	Patients with dermatological events N = 72	N = 289
Male sex, no. (%)	89 (31)	20 (28)	110 (38)
Age (yr) at diagnosis, mean (SD)	44.5 (14.7)	43.4 (12.7)	54.6 (14.1)**
RF-positive, no. (%)	249 (87)	68 (94)	205 (71)*
Disease duration (yr) at baseline, median (range)	9.2 (0.1–44.9)	10.3 (0.3–44.9)^†	6.2 (0.0–12.6)**
DAS28 at baseline, mean (SD)	5.9 (1.1)	6.1 (1.1)	3.6 (1.4)**
ANA-positive at baseline, no. (%)^b	112 (50)	33 (49)	118 (41)
Prior DMARDs, median (range)	4 (1–10)	5 (2–8)	1 (0–6)**
Prednisolone at baseline, no. (%)	112 (39)	34 (47)	21 (7)**

^aNot given TNF-α-blocking therapy. ^bANA at start was present in respectively 261 and 67 patients on TNF-α-blocking therapy. *P < 0.001, **P < 0.0001, compared with RA patients on TNF-α-blocking therapy; ^†P < 0.001 compared with RA patients on TNF-α-blocking therapy who experienced no dermatological events. ANA, antinuclear antibody; DAS28, disease activity score based on 28 joints; DMARD, disease-modifying antirheumatic drug; RF, rheumatoid factor; SD, standard deviation; TNF, tumor necrosis factor.

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