Baseline leucocyte cell counts in early and late rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared to healthy control. Absolute cell counts for (a) CD14bright monocytes, (b) CD14dim monocytes (c) CD14brighCD16+ monocytes, (d) CD16+ granulocytes, (e) CD4+ T cells, (f) CD8+ T cells, (g) CD19+ B cells and (h) CD3-CD56+natural killer (NK) cells were analysed in healthy controls (n = 22), early RA (n = 45) and late RA (n = 18) patients. **P < 0·01; ***P < 0·001 by Kruskal–Wallis test.