Upregulation of tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 6 correlated with synovitis severity in rheumatoid arthritis

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the 44 RA patients^▲

	RA (n= 44)
*Demographic characteristics*
Age, years, median (range)	51 (23 to 75)
Female, n (%)	34 (81)
*Disease status*
Disease duration, months, median (range)	36 (1 to 480)
RF positive, n (%)	35 (80)
ACPA positive, n (%)	37 (84)
DAS28, median (range)	5.84 (3.22 to 7.92)
Synovitis score^△, median (range)	4 (1 to 6.5)
*Medications*
Corticosteroids, n. (%)	27 (61)
Methotrexate, n (%)	16 (36)
Leflunomide, n (%)	10 (23)
Sulfasalazine, n (%)	2 (5)
Hydroxychloroquine, n (%)	1 (2)
Etanercept, n (%)	3 (7)

▲ ACPA, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody; DAS28, Disease Activity Score 28-joint assessment; n, number of patients; RA, rheumatoid arthritis; RF, rheumatoid factor; SD, standard deviation.
△ Synovitis score according to Krenn et al. [19, 22, 23], based on the following basic morphological parameters of synovitis: (a) hyperplasia of intima; (b) cellular density of synovial stroma and (c) inflammatory cell infiltration, including fibroblasts, endothelial cells, histiocytes, macrophages, and multinucleated giant cells. All parameters are graded from 0 (absent), 1 (slight), 2 (moderate) to 3 (strongly positive). The values of all parameters are summarized, resulting in a final score between 0 and 9 [22].

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