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Table 1 Characteristics of rheumatoid arthritis patients with and without cardiovascular disease

From: Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs are associated with a reduced risk for cardiovascular disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a case control study

 

RA without CVD (n = 541)

RA with CVD (n = 72)

p value

Demographic variables

   

   Mean age, years (SD)

62 (11)

67 (10)

<0.001a

   Percentage females

72

58

0.02a

RA related variables

   

   Median disease duration, years (IQ range)

7.7 (5–11)

10.6 (8–13)

<0.001a

   Percentage IgM-RF positive

70

82

0.05a

   Percentage erosive patients

80

92

0.02a

   Median number of used DMARDs (IQ range)

2 (2–3)

3 (1–3)

0.01a

   Percentage DMARD naive patients

3

10

0.002a

   Percentage never SSZ, HCQ or MTX

5

17

<0.001a

   Percentage SSZ ever

78

65

0.02a

   Percentage HCQ ever

40

38

0.67

   Percentage MTX ever

72

44

<0.001a

   Percentage prednisone ever

31

25

0.32

CVD related variables

   

   Percentage smoking ever

64

65

0.83

   Percentage hypertension

19

49

<0.001a

   Percentage diabetes

5

10

0.14

   Percentage hypercholesterolemia

2

21

<0.001a

  1. Comparison made using Students' t-tests or Mann-Whitney U tests for the continues variables and Pearson's Chi-square tests for dichotomic variables. aSignificant. CVD, cardiovascular disease; DMARD, disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug; HCQ, hydroxychloroquine; IQ range, inter-quartile-range; MTX, methotrexate; RA, rheumatoid arthritis; RF, rheumatoid factor; SD, standard deviation; SSZ, sulfasalazine.