Fig. 2

Correlation between qPCR and dcRT-MLPA IL-7R gene expression (a) and association between qPCR IL-7R and IA development (b). a Correlation between qPCR and dcRT-MLPA IL-7R gene expression data (p < 0.001, ρ = − 0.56). Patients that progressed to IA during follow-up (dark blue dots) and those that did not progress (light blue dots). b Association between qPCR IL-7R expression at presentation with clinically suspect arthralgia and development of inflammatory arthritis over time. Vertical lines indicate that a patient is censored. Patients were categorized into tertiles based on the gene expression levels to create three groups of equal size; highest expression values, and thus the highest risk for IA development, are represent in purple; moderate risk in green and lowest risk in yellow. Visual representation of the data was restricted to 850 days follow-up since thereafter the numbers of patients was small