Fig 5. Correlation between upper respiratory mucosa microbiota and clinical markers in patients with RA.

Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to examine the relationship between the abundance level of individual genera and disease activity markers or autoantibody titers in patients with RA. The genera that showed a significant linear relationship with at least one clinical factor were included in the heatmap of correlation coefficients (* for PFDR < 0.05, ** for PFDR < 0.01, *** for PFDR < 0.001). Abbreviations: CRP, C-reactive protein; ESR, Erythrocyte sedimentation rate; DAS, Disease activity score; anti-CCP, Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody; RF, Rheumatoid factor.