Fig. 3

Antirheumatic therapy with biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) shows the strongest effect on varicella zoster virus (VZV)-specific T-cell frequencies in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). a Flowchart gives an overview about the therapeutic regimens of the patients with RA, indicating the numbers of samples from patients with and without steroids, bDMARDs and conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (cDMARDs), including the detailed drug regimens. b–d Frequencies of VZV-specific (upper panels) and Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin B (SEB)-reactive CD4 T cells (lower panels) of patients with RA were stratified according to therapy without (−) or with (+) steroids (b), bDMARDs independent of other medication (c), or bDMARDs and cDMARDs independent of steroids (d), and compared with respective frequencies of healthy control subjects (HC, n = 39). Gray symbols refer to patients receiving steroids as part of their medication. Statistical significance was assessed using the Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn’s posttest (b–d). Significant differences in posttests are marked by asterisks (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001)