Table 2.

Clinical characteristics of the patients at the time of synovectomy

			Disease
Patients	Gender	Age	duration	RF	ESR	CRP	Number of ARA	Concomitant
(total)	(m/f)	(years)	(years)	(+/-)	(mm/h)	(mg/l)	criteria (RA)	medication
Rheumatoid arthritis
16	7/9	61.4 ± 2.2	12.0 ± 2.4	11/4 (n.d. = 1)	33.0 ± 4.6	41.8 ± 7.7	5.2 ± 0.2	MTX (n = 10)
								Prednisolone (n = 13)
								Sulfasalazine (n = 4)
								Gold salts (n = 1)
								NSAIDs (n = 12)
Osteoarthritis
21	5/16	70.4 ± 2.6	9.8 ± 3.0	0/8 (n.d. = 13)	15.6 ± 1.9	4.6 ± 1.4	0.3 ± 0.1	MTX (n = 1)
								Prednisolone (n = 1)
								NSAIDs (n = 11)
								None (n = 10)

For the parameters age, disease duration, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP) (normal range, < 5 mg/l), and number of American Rheumatism Association (ARA) criteria (rheumatoid arthritis [RA]), means ± SEM are given; for the remaining parameters, numbers are provided. m, Male; f, female; RF, rheumatoid factor; +/-, positive/negative; n.d. = not determined; MTX, Methotrexate; NSAIDs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.