Table 3.
Association of demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics and MBL2 genotype expression groups: juvenile polyarthritis
| Characteristic | MBL genotype expression groups | Pa | Pb | ||
| High (n = 36) | Medium (n = 23) | Low (n = 8) | |||
| Demographic variables | |||||
| Males | 10 (28%) | 4 (17%) | 5 (63%) | 0.05 | 0.04 |
| Age (years) at onset | 9.5 (5.6 to 13.0) | 10.1 (8.4 to 13.0) | 4.4 (3.6 to 7.0) | 0.03 | <0.01 |
| Disease duration (years) at follow up | 14.6 (13.5 to 16.3) | 14.5 (13.2 to 16.4) | 15.8 (13.4 to 16.6) | NS | NS |
| Clinical variables | NS | NS | |||
| Cumulative affected joints | 18 (10 to 32) | 22 (10 to 36) | 23 (12 to 39) | NS | NS |
| Actively involved joints | 1 (0 to 4) | 2 (0 to 8) | 0 (0 to 2) | NS | NS |
| Affected joints | 6 (2 to 18) | 8 (0 to 20) | 8 (1 to 27) | NS | NS |
| Arthritis severity index | 10 (2 to 31) | 17 (0 to 46) | 19 (2 to 54) | NS | NS |
| Physician global assessment | 2 (1 to 3) | 2 (1 to 4) | 1 (1 to 2) | NS | NS |
| Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire score | 0.1 (0.0 to 0.6) | 0.3 (0.0 to 1.2) | 0 (0.0 to 0.3) | NS | NS |
| Patients with uveitis | 5 (14%) | 4 (17%) | 1 (13%) | NS | NS |
| Remission status at follow up | NS | NS | |||
| Current remission | 18 (50%) | 10 (44%) | 4 (50%) | ||
| Active, but previous remission | 8 (22%) | 4 (17%) | 2 (25%) | ||
| Continuously active | 10 (28%) | 9 (39%) | 2 (25%) | ||
| Radiographic erosions grade III to IV | 16 (44%) | 10 (44%) | 4 (50%) | NS | NS |
| Laboratory variables | NS | NS | |||
| Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (mm/hour) | 8 (4 to 20) | 8 (5 to 25) | 3 (0 to 23) | NS | NS |
| C-reactive protein (mg/l) | 5 (3 to 9) | 7 (3 to 18) | 5 (4 to 17) | NS | NS |
| Antinuclear antibody positivity | 10 (28%) | 6 (27%) | 1 (13%) | NS | NS |
| IgM-rheumatoid factor positivity | 4 (11%) | 7 (30%) | 0 (0%) | NS | NS |
Included in this analysis are 67 patients with juvenile polyarthritis. Values are expressed as number (%) or, for continuous variables, as median (interquartile range). aComparison of the high, medium and low genotype expression groups by means of the two-sided Fisher's exact test and Kruskal-Wallis test. bComparison of the high and medium genotype group versus the low genotype expression group by means of the two-sided Fisher's exact test and Mann-Whitney U-test. NS, not significant.