Skip to main content
. 2006 Jun 22;66(1):28–33. doi: 10.1136/ard.2006.053488

Table 4 Disease‐related factors among patients with rheumatoid arthritis according to the presence of MetS.

Variable Women with RA Men with RA All RA
MetS−* (n = 80) MetS+† (n = 67) p Value‡ MetS− (n = 32) MetS+ (n = 21) p Value MetS− (n = 112) MetS+ (n = 88) p Value
RF positivity, n (%) 28 (35) 21 (31.3) 0.7 13 (40.6) 9 (42.9) 0.8 41 (36.6) 30 (34.1) 0.8
RA duration, years, mean (SD) 9.7 (8.6) 9.4 (10.1) 0.8 8.3 (9.3) 11.3 (14.8) 0.4 9.3 (8.8) 9.8 (11.4) 0.7
Extra‐articular manifestations, n (%) 12 (15) 16 (23.9) 0.2 6 (18.8) 4 (19) 0.9 18 (16.1) 20 (22.7) 0.3
Biological treatment, n (%) 34 (42.5) 20 (29.9) 0.1 14 (43.8) 5 (23.8) 0.1 48 (42.9) 25 (28.4) 0.04
NSAID, n (%) 3 (3.8) 6 (9) 0.2 1 (3.1) 0 0.4 4 (3.6) 6 (6.8) 0.3
Steroids, n (%) 24 (30.0) 11 (16.4) 0.05 9 (28.1) 4 (19) 0.5 33 (29.5) 15 (17) 0.04
Methotrexate, n (%) 54 (67.5) 39 (58.2) 0.2 20 (62.5) 15 (71.4) 0.5 74 (66.1) 54 (61.4) 0.5
hs‐CRP, mg/dl, mean (SD) 0.6 (0.5) 0.7 (0.7) 0.3 0.9 (0.8) 0.9 (0.9) 0.8 0.7 (0.6) 0.8 (0.8) 0.4
ESR, mm/h, mean (SD) 31.9 (18.6) 38.1 (20.8) 0.06 27.9 (16.4) 27.0 (13.5) 0.8 30.8 (18.1) 35.4 (19.8) 0.08

ESR, erythrocyte sedimentation rate; HDL, high‐density lipoprotein; hs‐CRP, high‐sensitivity C reactive protein; LDL, low‐density lipoprotein; MetS, metabolic syndrome components; NSAID, non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drug; RA, rheumatoid arthritis; RF, rheumatoid factor.

Significant (p<0.05) differences are highlighted in bold.

*MetS−: no metabolic syndrome.

†MetS+: metabolic syndrome.

‡Difference between patients with rheumatoid arthritis with and without MetS.