Patients with obesity have more inflamed joints and higher CRP levels during the disease course in ACPA-positive RA but not in ACPA-negative RA

Table 1 Baseline characteristics for ACPA-positive and ACPA-negative patients

	Total N = 649	ACPA-positive N = 291	ACPA-negative N = 358
Age at inclusion	59.7 (14.2)	57.2 (14.2)	61.8 (13.9)^*
Female sex	63%	60%	65%
SJC (44 joints)	5 (2–10)	5 (2–8)	6 (3–11)^*
TJC (53 joints)	8 (4–13)	6 (3–10)	9 (5–15)^*
CRP (mg/L)	9.0 (3–24)	8.7 (4–19)	10.0 (3–26)
ACPA-positive and RF-positive	36%	82%	0%^*
Only ACPA-positive	6%	14%	0%^*
Only RF-positive	13%	0%	23%^*
VAS general health (mm)	40 (20–60)	40 (20–60)	50 (30–70)^*
DAS44 CRP	3.1 (2.4–3.7)	2.8 (2.2–3.4)	3.3 (2.6–3.9)^*
BMI (kg/m²)	26.0 (23.3–29.0)	25.4 (23.1–28.5)	26.4 (23.7–29.5)^*
BMI categorized
Normal BMI 18.5–24.9	40%	44%	36%
Overweight 25–29.9	40%	38%	42%
Obese > 29.9	19%	16%	21%

Data are presented as mean (SD) or median (IQR) for continuous variables and in percentage (%) for categorical variables. n = 7 patients suffered from underweight
Abbreviations: ACPA Anti-citrullinated protein antibodies, SJC Swollen joint count, TJC Tender joint count, CRP C-reactive protein, RF Rheumatoid factor, VAS Visual analog scale, DAS Disease activity score, BMI Body mass index
^*Significant difference between ACPA-positive and ACPA-negative patients (p-value < 0.05)

ISSN: 1478-6362