A multicenter, double-blind, randomized, controlled phase III clinical trial of chicken type II collagen in rheumatoid arthritis

Table 1 Comparison of baseline clinical characteristics between the chicken type II collagen group and the methotrexate group

Variables	CCII (n = 296)	MTX (n = 158)	Pvalue
Gender, male/female	55/241	30/128	0.983
Age, years	47.11 ± 10.55	47.06 ± 11.14	0.967
Duration of rheumatoid arthritis, years	1.63 ± 0.75	1.72 ± 0.52	0.949
Body temperature, °C	36.66 ± 0.38	36.65 ± 0.39	0.892
Pain (VAS^a)	6.02 ± 1.43	5.91 ± 1.76	0.528
Morning stiffness, minutes	99.26 ± 25.14	104.89 ± 26.42	0.277
Tender joint count	13.34 ± 6.43	14.09 ± 6.82	0.233
Swollen joint count	10.38 ± 6.63	10.57 ± 7.25	0.773
HAQ^b	0.82 ± 0.56	0.86 ± 0.55	0.454
Physician's assessment (VAS)	5.83 ± 1.54	5.78 ± 1.26	0.892
Patient's assessment (VAS)	6.01 ± 1.51	6.06 ± 1.71	0.731
ESR^c, mm/hour	38.18 ± 27.58	42.51 ± 29.37	0.118
C-reactive protein, mg/L	17.52 ± 8.27	23.24 ± 9.81	0.306
Rheumatoid factor, U/mL	203.65 ± 61.95	198.99 ± 21.31	0.115

The same variables were compared between the chicken type II collagen (CCII) group and the methotrexate (MTX) group. Fisher exact test was used for categorical variables, and t analysis of variance was used for continuous variables. ^cESR, erythrocyte sedimentation rate; ^bHAQ, health assessment questionnaire; MTX, methotrexate; ^aVAS, visual analogue scale.

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