Table 2 Baseline characteristics and change after 4 weeks following intramuscular methylprednisolone injection for all patients, non‐responders and responders to steroid.
| Variable | Baseline | Change over 4 weeks | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All patients | Non‐responders | Responders | Overall | Non‐responders | Responders | Mann Whitney U test, p value | |
| EMS (min) | 60 (30 to 320) | 60 (30 to 320) | 60 (30 to 320) | −30 (−320 to 120) | 0 (−120 to 120) | −35 (−320 to 30) | <0.001 |
| HAQ | 1 (0 to 2.75) | 1 (0 to 2.13) | 1.06 (0 to 2.75) | −0.13 (−1.50 to 0.75) | 0 (−0.38 to 0.38) | −0.38 (−1.50 to 0.75) | <0.001 |
| PJC* | 10 (0 to 72) | 9 (0 to 44) | 10 (1 to 72) | −3 (−48 to 22) | 0 (−36 to 22) | −6 (−48 to 16) | <0.001 |
| TJC | 14 (0 to 72) | 18 (0 to 72) | 10 (0 to 58) | −2 (−43 to 30) | 0 (−24 to 30) | −3 (−43 to 18) | 0.006 |
| SJC | 2 (0 to 24) | 2 (0 to 16) | 2 (0 to 24) | −1 (−17 to 6) | 0 (−11 to 3) | −1 (−17 to 6) | 0.500 |
| VAS (mm) | |||||||
| Pain/stiffness | 55 (3 to 98) | 53 (3 to 96) | 59.5 (9 to 98) | −16 (−71 to 44) | −1 (−63 to 44) | −26.5 (−71 to 42) | <0.001 |
| Disease activity | 55 (2 to 100) | 50 (2 to 100) | 56 (2 to 98) | −16 (−82 to 49) | 0 (−47 to 49) | −20.5 (−82 to 43) | <0.001 |
| †Physician | 18 (0 to 91) | 18 (4 to 64) | 21 (0 to 91) | −3.5 (−57 to 23) | 2 (−52 to 12) | −6.5 (−57 to 23) | 0.007 |
EMS, early morning stiffness; HAQ, Health Assessment Questionnaire; PJC, painful joint count; SJC, swollen joint count; TJC, tender joint count; VAS, visual analogue score.
Values presented are medians (range). p Values are for improvement in baseline assessments between responders and non‐responders using non‐parametric Mann–Whitney U tests (following Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons, critical p for testing at the 5% significance level was set at 0.006).
*Total n = 90.
†Total n = 80.