Fig. 1

Patient screening and follow-up, and treatment outcomes. The initial mean ± S.D. dose of 0.82 ± 0.23 mg/kg/day of prednisolone was started in 71 newly diagnosed patients, with 34 also receiving glucocorticoid (GC) pulse therapy at baseline. A poor treatment outcome was defined as a poor treatment response within 4 weeks. The latter was defined as administration of two or more rounds of GC pulse therapy or the addition of any other immunosuppressive drugs within 4 weeks, due to failure to achieve remission or due to relapse. According to this definition, 29 patients had a poor treatment outcome at week 4. The remaining 42 had a good treatment outcome at week 4, but 18 of them had relapsed by week 52.