Figure 2.

Absence of spreading and rituximab treatment are associated with better clinical outcome. Combined effect of treatment group and spreading at baseline on clinical outcome is shown at M6 and last follow-up before modification of treatment (Last). Absence or presence of epitope spreading at baseline (M0) is shown by color codes. Results suggest that rituximab tends to blunt the effect of spreading on clinical remission at last follow-up. Note the higher number of spreaders with no remission (No-R) compared with those with remission (R) in the NIAT group (arrow), contrasting with the lower number of spreaders with No-R versus R in the RITUX group. Exact numbers and percentages are shown in the table.