Table 2.

Characters of 2 RCT studies

Study	n e	n c	Subject	Mean age (year)	Follow-up period (week)	Treatment	Disease activity	Flare	Prednisone dose	Immunologic parameters	Adverse effect	Conclusion
Explorer	169	88	Moderately to severely active extra renal SLE	40.2	56	Rituximab 1 000 mg 2 infusions at entry, again at 6 months, continue with prednisone dose	Low disease activity was achieved prior to Week 52 in 58 (66.0%) patients in the placebo group and in 127 (75.1%) patients in the rituximab group	No difference of median time to first moderate or severe flare and flare rate between two groups	The rate of prednisone rescue for A flare was similar	The decrease in rituximab was greater than that in the placebo group	Infusion related adverse effect similar in two groups. Four serum sickness adverse events in rituximab group	Explorer study did not meet the primary and secondary points, but suggested that rituximab may lessen severe flares as defined by BILAG A criteria
Lunar	72	72	Class III/IV and active lupus nephritis	30	52	Rituximab on Days 1, 15, 168, and 182	There were no statistically significant differences in the primary or clinical secondary end points	Not registered		Rituximab had a greater effect on levels of anti-dsDNA and complement at Week 52	Serious adverse events were similar in two groups	Lunar did not show a statistically significant difference in primary or clinical secondary end points

n _e: number enrolled; n _c: control number