Prophylaxis for Pneumocystis pneumonia in patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with biologics, based on risk factors found in a retrospective study

Table 1 Comparison of baseline characteristics of two cohorts ^a

Characteristics	Before	After	P-value
Patients, n	702	214
Observation period (person-years)	972.9	101.4
Females, n (%)	578 (82.3)	174 (81.3)	0.851
Age (years)	58.0 ± 14.3	58.9 ± 15.5	0.642
RA duration (months)	112 ± 125	92.9 ± 119	0.037
DAS28 score (ESR)	5.83 ± 1.24	5.45 ± 1.27	0.001
Coexisting pulmonary disease (%)	37.7	65.8	0.001
Diabetes mellitus (%)	12.7	9.80	0.268
Glucocorticoids (%)^b	43.2	22.9	0.001
Methotrexate (%)^c	78.5	87.9	0.002
Dose of methotrexate (mg/wk)	8.96 ± 2.46	9.51 ± 2.51	0.007
Serum level of IgG (mg/dl)	1590 ± 522	1600 ± 876	0.131
Serum level of KL-6 (U/ml)	271 ± 147	250 ± 194	0.086

^aDAS28: Disease Activity Score in 28 joints; ESR: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate; IgG: Immunoglobulin G. ^bThe use of glucocorticoids data are the percentage of patients treated with glucocorticoids. ^cThe use of methotrexate data are the percentage of patients treated with methotrexate. Compared with the group of 702 patients, the duration of RA was shorter and DAS28 score (ESR), the complication of pulmonary disease, and the use and dose of glucocorticoids were lower in 214 patients. The dose of methotrexate was increased after the adoption of the prophylaxis criterion. Data are mean ± SD by Wilcoxon rank-sum test.

ISSN: 1478-6362