Use of methotrexate therapy is not associated with decreased prevalence of metabolic syndrome

Table 1 Characteristics of the study population

	MetS present^a	MetS absent^a	MetS present^b	MetS absent^b
	n = 84	n = 265	n = 121	n = 228	Pvalue^a	Pvalue^b
Demographics
Age, years	63.8 (± 8)	63.1 (± 7)	64.3 (± 8)	62.7 (± 7)	0.46	0.045
Female, percentage	76	63	74	62	0.022	0.028
RA-related characteristics
DAS28	4.2 (± 1.3)	3.9 (± 1.4)	4.1 (± 1.3)	3.8 (± 1.4)	0.21	0.062
ESR, mm/hour	22 (10-35)	16 (9-30)	20 (10-34)	17 (9-31)	0.059	0.33
CRP, mg/L	11 (4-21)	6 (3-16)	8 (3-18)	6 (3-19)	0.021	0.46
RA duration, years	7 (4-10)	7 (4-10)	7 (4-10)	7 (5-10)	0.83	0.19
Erosion, percentage	77	83	79	83	0.20	0.36
Number of DMARDs	1 (1-2)	1 (1-1)	1 (1-2)	1 (1-1)	0.26	0.43
MTX current, percentage	62	60	63	59	0.71	0.46
MTX only, percentage	39	39	41	38	0.95	0.67
SSZ only, percentage	8	13	9	14	0.23	0.22
HCQ only, percentage	1	4	3	4	0.31	0.55
Combination of DMARDs, percentage	31	25	29	25	0.24	0.38
TNF-blocking agent, percentage	11	9	11	9	0.73	0.65
Prednisolone only, percentage	1	2	3	1	1.00	0.42
Cardiovascular risk factors
Current smoker, percentage	26	31	25	32	0.42	0.15
Pack-years, years	17 (0-34)	19 (2-38)	19 (0-35)	18 (2-38)	0.23	0.75
BMI, kg/m²	30 (± 4)	26 (± 5)	29 (± 4)	25 (± 5)	< 0.001	< 0.001
Creatinine, μmol/L	89 (± 21)	89 (± 16)	91 (± 22)	87 (± 14)	0.99	0.070
Renal clearance, mL/minute	81 (± 24)	72 (± 19)	77 (± 23)	73 (± 19)	0.003	0.062
Pulse, beats per minute	76 (± 11)	73 (± 9)	75 (± 11)	73 (± 9)	0.005	0.015
Diabetes mellitus, percentage	14	3	12	3	< 0.001	0.001
Hypothyroidism, percentage	12	2	9	2	0.001	0.003

^aMetabolic syndrome (MetS) according to National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) 2001; ^bMetS according to NCEP 2004. Continuous variables are presented as means (± standard deviations) in cases of normal distribution or as medians (interquartile ranges) in cases of non-normal distribution. BMI, body mass index; CRP, C-reactive protein; DAS28, disease activity score using 28 joint counts; DMARD, disease-modifying antirheumatic drug; ESR, erythrocyte sedimentation rate; HCQ, hydroxychloroquine; MTX, methotrexate; RA, rheumatoid arthritis; SSZ, sulfasalazine; TNF, tumour necrosis factor.

ISSN: 1478-6362