Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of study participants.

Variable	RA Patients (n = 65)	Controls (n = 195)	P value
Age (yrs)	58.4 ± 12.3	51.5 ± 10.9	<0.001
Female (%)	53 (82)	131 (67)	0.028
Comorbidities
Systemic hypertension (%)	38 (59)	64 (33)	<0.001
Diabetes mellitus (%)	10 (15)	22 (11)	0.383
Cardiovascular disease (%)	3 (5)	16 (8)	0.420
Chronic lung disease (%)	2 (3)	14 (7)	0.372
Chronic renal insufficiency (%)	3 (5)	9 (5)	0.999
Liver disease (%)	1 (2)	9 (5)	0.459
History of malignancy (%)	2 (3)	5 (3)	0.999