Increased frequency of CCR4+ and CCR6+ memory T-cells including CCR7+CD45RAmed very early memory cells in granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's)

Table 1 Clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with GPA and healthy controls

	Patients with GPA in remission	Patients with active GPA	Healthy controls
Number	12	14	20
Age in years, mean (range)	58 (38-83)	55 (27-77)	51 (21-78)
Sex, male/female	10/2	10/4	11/9
BVAS V3.0, mean (range)	0	10 (4-21)
CRP in mg/L, mean (range)	8 (1-17)	33 (1-86)
PR3-ANCA, positive/negative	9/3	14/0
Methotrexate, number	9	5
Azathioprine, number	1	0
Leflunomide, number	2	0
Cyclophosphamide, number	0	5
Prednisolone, number	12	10
Prednisolone dosage in mg	6.1 ± 0.8	11.9 ± 1.9^a
No treatment	0	4

Remission was defined as BVAS V3.0 (Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Index version 3.0) of 0. Disease activity in patients either with first manifestation or relapsing was defined as BVAS V3.0 of at least 1 (15). Prednisolone dosage is expressed as mean ± standard error of the mean. ^aP < 0.05 by Mann-Whitney U test. CRP, C-reactive protein; GPA, granulomatosis with polyangiitis; PR3-ANCA, anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies targeting proteinase 3.

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