Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of the 44 RA patients▲
| RA (n = 44) | |
|---|---|
| Demographic characteristics | |
| Age, years, median (range) | 51 (23 to 75) |
| Female, n (%) | 34 (81) |
| Disease status | |
| Disease duration, months, median (range) | 36 (1 to 480) |
| RF positive, n (%) | 35 (80) |
| ACPA positive, n (%) | 37 (84) |
| DAS28, median (range) | 5.84 (3.22 to 7.92) |
| Synovitis score△, median (range) | 4 (1 to 6.5) |
| Medications | |
| Corticosteroids, n. (%) | 27 (61) |
| Methotrexate, n (%) | 16 (36) |
| Leflunomide, n (%) | 10 (23) |
| Sulfasalazine, n (%) | 2 (5) |
| Hydroxychloroquine, n (%) | 1 (2) |
| Etanercept, n (%) | 3 (7) |
▲ ACPA, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody; DAS28, Disease Activity Score 28-joint assessment; n, number of patients; RA, rheumatoid arthritis; RF, rheumatoid factor; SD, standard deviation.
△ Synovitis score according to Krenn et al. [19,22,23], based on the following basic morphological parameters of synovitis: (a) hyperplasia of intima; (b) cellular density of synovial stroma and (c) inflammatory cell infiltration, including fibroblasts, endothelial cells, histiocytes, macrophages, and multinucleated giant cells. All parameters are graded from 0 (absent), 1 (slight), 2 (moderate) to 3 (strongly positive). The values of all parameters are summarized, resulting in a final score between 0 and 9 [22].