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Table 1 Patient and control characteristics at baseline a

From: High levels of memory B cells are associated with response to a first tumor necrosis factor inhibitor in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in a longitudinal prospective study

Characteristics at time of inclusion

Controls

All RA patients

DMARD-naïve patients

TNFi-naïve patients

TNFi ongoing

Baseline TNFi introduction

(N = 31)

(N = 96)

(N = 18)

(N = 58)

(N = 21)

(N = 21)

Monoclonal antibodies/soluble receptors (n)

12/9

10/11

Females (%)

68

71

78

71

76

75

Age, yr (mean ± SD)

51 ± 16

59 ± 13

59 ± 16

58 ± 14

59 ± 11

59 ± 11

RA duration, yr (median (IQR))

10 (4 to 21)

4 (3 to 19)

8 (3 to 22)

9 (5 to 16)

7 (2 to 28)

RF positivity (%)

76

76

68

80

81

ACPA positivity (%)

76

76

71

74

71

RF- and ACPA-negative (%)

 

21

22

21

19

19

Radiographic erosions (%)

73

65

67

81

71

Ongoing synthetic DMARD (%)

69

0

46

71

77

Previous TNFi (%)

36

0

0

86

0

Previous use of other biologic drugs (n)

40

0

0

19

0

Use of steroids (<10 mg/day) (%)

0

60.4

50.0

53.3

66.6

54.5

Current steroid dose (mg/day)

0

5 (0 to 9)

2.5 (0 to 7.8)

2.5 (0 to 7.6)

5.5 (0 to 8.6)

5 (0 to 9.2)

C-reactive protein level (mg/dl)

1.1 (0.4 to 2.4)

0.8 (0.3 to 2.8)

0.9 (0.4 to 1.9)

1.9 (0.8 to 2.8)

1.4 (0.4 to 2.6)

DAS28 score (median (IQR))

4.2 (3.4 to 5.5)

4.2 (3.4 to 5.0)

3.9 (3.3 to 4.7)

5.7 (5.1 to 6.4)

4.5 (2.8 to 5.0)

  1. aACPA, Anticitrullinated peptide antibody; DAS28, Disease Activity Score in 28 joints; DMARD, Disease-modifying antirheumatic drug; RA, Rheumatoid arthritis; RF, Rheumatoid factor; TNFi, Tumor necrosis factor inhibitor. DMARD-naïve patients and patients at baseline of TNFi introduction are included in the TNFi-naïve patient group. TNFi ongoing patients are different from all the other subgroups. All analyses are adjusted for age, sex and glucocorticoid dose.