Table 4.
Subjects demographic and clinical characteristics
| Characteristics | SJIA Flare |
SJIA Quiescence |
POLYJIA Flare |
POLYJIA Quiescence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N1 | 22 | 24 | 17 | 8 |
| Female/Male2 | 11/11 | 11/13 | 14/3 | 7/1 |
| African- American |
1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Asian | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Caucasian | 8 | 10 | 11 | 4 |
| Caucasian Hispanic | 10 | 9 | 5 | 3 |
| Median age (yr) at disease onset (range) | 5.8 (1.7 to 15.7) | 5.8 (1.4 to 15.7) | 8.6 (1.2 to 15.1) | 8.6 (1.2 to 15.1) |
| Median age (yr) at sample collection (range) | 9.3 (3.5 to 16.6) | 11.1 (2.4 to 18.9) | 13.4 (5 to 18.7) | 14.1 (6.1 to 19.2) |
| Median WBC (x103/ul) (range) |
13.3 (5.3 to 27.4)3 | 6.9 (3.4 to 11.8) | 8.8 (4.9 to 15.1) | 7.5 (5.6 to 9.8) |
| Median platelets (x103/ul) (range) |
461 (257 to 814)4 | 280 (170 to 400) | 384 (211 to 512)5 | 283 (224 to 432) |
| Median ESR (mm/h) (range) |
81 (11 to 121)6 | 5.5 (0 to 18) | 31 (7 to 78)7 | 9 (2 to 15) |
| Median joint count (range) | 9 (1 to 28)8 | 0 (0 to 1) | 25 (3 to 62)9 | 0 (0) |
| Median prednisone dose, mg/kd/day (range) |
0.01 (0 to 0.53)10 | 0 (0 to 1.1) | 0 (0 to 0.1) | 0 (0 to 1) |
| Methotrexate/ total no. samples (%) |
8/22 (36%) | 7/24 (29%) | 10/17 (59%) | 6/8 (75%) |
| Anti-TNF/total no. samples (%) | 7/22 (32%) | 9/24 (38%) | 5/17 (29%)11 | 5/8 (63%)11 |
| IL-1RA/total no. samples (%) | 1/22 (5%) | 2/24 (8%) | 0/17 | 0/8 |
F, Flare; Q, Quiescent; SJIA F, systemic score of ≥ 1 and/or an arthritis score of ≥ B; POLY F, arthritis score of ≥ 1 (See Tables 1-3)
WBC: white blood count; ESR: erythrocyte sedimentation rate
1 31 unique SJIA patients, and 18 unique PolyJIA patients; 15 SJIA patients and 7 PolyJIA patients gave samples during flare and quiescence.
2 P < 0.05 (chi-square test)
Tests performed using Kruskal-Wallis with Dunn's multiple comparison test post test (3 to 9):
3 P < 0.0001 compared to SJIA Q and P < 0.05 compared to Poly Q
4 P < 0.0001 compared to SJIA Q and P < 0.01 compared to Poly Q
5 P < 0.05 compared to SJIA Q
6 P < 0.0001 compared to SJIA Q and P < 0.01 compared to Poly Q
7 P < 0.01 compared to SJIA Q
8 P < 0.0001 compared to SJIA Q and Poly Q
9 P < 0.0001 compared to SJIA Q and Poly Q
10 One patient received intravenous methylprednisolone pulse of 1 g daily for three days at the time of the sample.
11 This difference may reflect inclusion of subsets of patients who are anti-TNF responders and non-responders. This difference also raises the possibility that the gene signatures could be specifically influenced by differential response to this drug in these groups.