Table 1. Clinical and biochemical characteristics of the study population.
| Controls (n = 30) | RA patients (n = 38) | Infliximab-treated patients (n = 20) | Prednisolone-treated patients (n = 18) | p-value* | p-value# | |
| DAS-28 | – | 6.4 ± 0.7 | 6.4 ± 0.5 | 6.1 ± 0.8 | – | 0.06 |
| Disease duration (months) | – | 85.7 ± 66.8 | 98.4 ± 77.4 | 71.6 ± 51.1 | – | 0.21 |
| RF (mg/dl) | – | 226.8 (25.2–66.1) | 194.4 (25.2–321.8) | 165.8 (30.5–366.1) | – | 0.57 |
| Age (years) | 50.7 ± 3.4 | 52.1 ± 11.1 | 53.4 ± 13.5 | 50.7 ± 7.6 | 0.52 | 0.44 |
| Body mass index (kg/m2) | 30.5 ± 3.7 | 30.5 ± 5.5 | 31.0 ± 5.9 | 29.9 ± 5.2 | 0.91 | 0.70 |
| Obesity (%) | 7 (23) | 5 (13) | 2 (10) | 3 (16) | 0.21 | 0.47 |
| Hypertension (%) | 10 (33) | 17 (44) | 9 (45) | 8 (44) | 0.24 | 0.63 |
| Current smoking (%) | 8 (26) | 5 (13) | 2 (10) | 3 (16) | 0.13 | 0.32 |
| Dyslipidaemia (%) | 8 (26) | 8 (21) | 3 (15) | 5 (27) | 0.39 | 0.56 |
| Diabetes mellitus (%) | 2 (6) | 8 (21) | 4 (20) | 4 (22) | 0.09 | 0.24 |
| Medication | ||||||
| RAAS blocker (%) | 5 (16) | 11 (28) | 6 (30) | 5 (27) | 0.18 | 0.48 |
| β-blocker (%) | 5 (16) | 4 (10) | 1 (5) | 3 (16) | 0.34 | 0.43 |
| CaCh blocker (%) | 4 (13) | 4 (10) | 3 (15) | 1 (5) | 0.5 | 0.62 |
| Statin (%) | 7 (23) | 4 (10) | 2 (10) | 2 (11) | 0.13 | 0.36 |
| SBP (mmHg) | 121.6 ± 9.8 | 124.7 ± 13.9 | 122.1 ± 14.4 | 127.4 ± 13.2 | 0.33 | 0.24 |
| DBP (mmHg) | 79.0 ± 6.6 | 78.7 ± 8.9 | 75.5 ± 9.1 | 82.2 ± 7.5 | 0.92 | 0.12 |
| HR (beats/min) | 70.6 ± 6.3 | 74.4 ± 10.5 | 74.9 ± 12.2 | 71.1±7.7 | 0.45 | 0.5 |
| Total cholesterol (mg/dl) | 171.1 ± 29.7 | 163.0 ± 24.6 | 170.3 ± 20.2 | 166.5 ± 10.8 | 0.4 | 0.74 |
| HDL cholesterol (mg/dl) | 39.1 ± 8.1 | 41.3 ± 11.3 | 40.4 ± 12.9 | 43.7 ± 9.5 | 0.36 | 0.53 |
| LDL cholesterol (mg/dl) | 112.4 ± 16.4 | 117.2 ± 26.6 | 115.6 ± 25.4 | 119.0 ± 22.9 | 0.44 | 0.76 |
| Glucose (mg/dl) | 96.7 ± 10.7 | 98.4 ± 15.9 | 102.3 ± 13.1 | 98.6 ± 10.0 | 0.77 | 0.47 |
| Creatinine (mg/dl) | 0.8 ± 0.1 | 0.8 ± 0.2 | 0.8 ± 0.1 | 0.8 ± 0.1 | 0.62 | 0.82 |
| CRP (mg/dl) | 1.2 (0.6–4.3) | 20.4 (8.0–34.9) | 20.4 (10.5–34.9) | 17.6 (8.0–33.5) | < 0.01 | 0.16 |
Values are expressed as mean ± SD. Values for CRP and RF are median and interquartile range.
*For comparisons between RA patients and control group.
#For comparisons between infliximab- and prednisolone-treated patients.
DAS-28 = disease activity score, RF = rheumatoid factor, RAAS = renin–angiotensin–aldosteron system, CaCh = calcium channel, SBP = systolic blood pressure, DBP = diastolic blood pressure, HR = heart rate, CRP = C-reactive protein.