Table 1.
Clinical characteristics and laboratory data for patients
| Baseline | Follow-up | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-CRP-positive | Anti-CRP-negative | Mann-Whitney | Anti-CRP-positive | Anti-CRP-negative | Mann-Whitney | |
| Age (years) | 30.5 (13.1) | 35.0 (11.6) | NS | 27.0 (8.2) | 35.1 (12.7) | NS |
| Gender | ||||||
| Female | 16 | 18 | 5 | 29 | ||
| Male | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | ||
| Ethnicity | ||||||
| Caucasian | 16 | 17 | 5 | 28 | ||
| Iranian Caucasian | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | ||
| Iraqi Caucasian | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Asian | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Creatinine (μmol/l) | 95.3 (43.3) | 97.0 (51.0) | NS | 78.3 (9.6) | 83 (46.2) | NS |
| Albuminuria (g/day) | 1.7 (1.4) | 2.7 (2.3) | NS | 1.6 (1.3) | 0.8 (0.9) | NS |
| C3 (g/l) | 0.47 (0.26) | 0.57 (0.24) | NS | 0.85 (0.28) | 0.80 (0.27) | NS |
| C4 (g/l) | 0.09 (0.06) | 0.10 (0.05) | NS | 0.14 (0.03) | 0.14 (0.07) | NS |
| C1q (% of normal reference) | 57.9 (37.3) | 79.0 (36.7) | NS | 73.0 (32.4) | 83.0 (28.1) | NS |
| Anti-dsDNA-positive | 16 | 18 | 3 | 21 | ||
| CLIFT titre, median | 200 | 25 | P = 0.04 | 25 | 10 | NS |
| Renal histopathology | ||||||
| Class I | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Class II | 0 | 0 | 1 | 13 | ||
| Class III | 1 | 7 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Class IV | 12 | 7 | 2 | 4 | ||
| Class III to IV/V | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | ||
| Class V | 3 | 5 | 2 | 10 | ||
| Activity index | 7.0 (3.1) | 5.5 (3.5) | NS | 3.5 (2.0) | 2.7 (3.2) | NS |
| Chronicity index | 2.3 (1.9) | 1.4 (2.0) | NS | 2.7 (1.0) | 2.7 (2.4) | NS |
| BILAG index | ||||||
| A | 14 | 20 | 1 | 5 | ||
| B | 3 | 1 | 4 | 14 | ||
| C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | ||
| D | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | ||
| Treatment | ||||||
| Prednisolone, mean daily dose (mg) | 10.1 (10.5) | 12.9 (17.8) | NS | 14.5 (7.2) | 10.6 (5.0) | NS |
| Mycophenolate mofetil | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Cyclophosphamide | 15 | 13 | ||||
| Rituximab | 0 | 6 | ||||
| Mycophenolate mofetil/cyclophosphamide | 1 | 0 | ||||
Data presented as mean (standard deviation) or n. BILAG, British Isles Lupus Assessment Group; CLIFT, Crithidia luciliae immunofluorescence microscopy test; CRP, C-reactive protein; NS, not significant.