Table 1.
Clinical and serological characterization of the SLE patients, matched controls, and suggested aPL+ and SSA/SSB+ SLE subgroups
| Controls n = 316 1 |
SLE n = 378 1, 2 |
aPL+ SLE n = 66 1 |
SSA/SSB+ SLE n = 63 1 | Control vs. aPL+ SLE p value 3 |
Control vs. SSA/SSB+ SLE p value 3 |
aPL+ vs. SSA/SSB+ SLE p value 3 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demographic/clinical | |||||||
| Sampling age | 48.1 (11.5) | 47.7 (11.8) | 47.9 (9.99) | 48.6 (11.6) | 8.7E−01 | 7.9E−01 | 9.8E−01 |
| Gender (%female) | 92.1 (−) | 87.3 (−) | 83.3 (−) | 84.1 (−) | 3.6E−02 | 5.7E−02 | 1.0E+00 |
| Nephritis (%yes) | 0.316 (−) | 42.3 (−) | 48.5 (−) | 20.6 (−) | 5.0E−27 | 3.0E−10 | 1.5E−03 |
| SLEDAI-2K | – | 4 (3.5) | 4 (3) | 3 (2.75) | – | – | 1.6E−02 |
| SLAM | – | 6 (3) | 6 (3.5) | 7 (2.5) | – | – | 7.4E−01 |
| SLICC total | – | 1 (1) | 2 (1.5) | 1 (1) | – | – | 1.1E−02 |
| Disease duration | – | 11.6 (8.81) | 10.3 (9.52) | 8.42 (9.01) | – | – | 8.2E−01 |
| Serological/biochemical | |||||||
| A1-antitrypsin (g/l) | 1.4 (0.15) | 1.4 (0.15) | 1.5 (0.2) | 1.4 (0.125) | 8.7E−06 | 4.6E−01 | 3.3E−03 |
| Apo A (g/l) | 1.7 (0.25) | 1.5 (0.2) | 1.4 (0.15) | 1.4 (0.15) | 3.3E−07 | 5.3E−06 | 5.0E−01 |
| Apo B (g/l) | 0.81 (0.155) | 0.81 (0.135) | 0.83 (0.125) | 0.79 (0.159) | 1.5E−01 | 7.9E−01 | 2.2E−01 |
| C1q (% of normal) | – | 103 (17.6) | 101 (19.2) | 105 (22) | – | – | 5.5E−01 |
| C2 (% of normal) | – | 118 (25.8) | 105 (24) | 144 (28.2) | – | – | 1.4E−05 |
| C3 (g/l) | 1.04 (0.145) | 0.87 (0.165) | 0.8 (0.135) | 0.91 (0.149) | 4.6E−14 | 5.5E−09 | 1.8E−01 |
| C3a (μg/l) | 298 (1620) | 270 (3586) | 759 (1582) | 1102 (1852) | 6.8E−01 | 4.3E−01 | 3.6E−01 |
| C3dg (mg/l) | – | 7.6 (2.05) | 9.2 (1.93) | 6.1 (1.58) | – | – | 2.7E−05 |
| C4 (g/l) | 0.21 (0.04) | 0.15 (0.05) | 0.125 (0.045) | 0.15 (0.0338) | 1.0E−17 | 3.9E−13 | 9.5E−02 |
| TCC (AU/l) | 30 (25) | 59 (153) | 65 (57) | 78 (74) | 2.7E−04 | 3.4E−05 | 2.7E−01 |
| Creatinine (μmol/l) | 66 (11) | 69 (80) | 72 (83) | 69 (70) | 5.6E−06 | 1.1E−02 | 8.2E−02 |
| SLEDAI-2K Proteinurea = 4 (n) |
– | 39 (10%) | 11 (17%) | 3 (5%) | – | – | 3.1E−02 |
| Fibrinogen (g/l) | 3.8 (0.6) | 4.1 (0.8) | 4.5 (0.65) | 4.1 (0.8) | 4.4E−08 | 9.9E−02 | 8.8E−03 |
| Homocysteine (μmol/l) | 9.3 (1.48) | 12 (2.69) | 13.6 (3.2) | 11.3 (2.32) | 3.6E−13 | 1.9E−08 | 1.1E−01 |
| Hs CRP (mg/l) | 0.96 (0.825) | 1.7 (2.22) | 2.5 (3.73) | 1.8 (2.26) | 1.5E−08 | 1.7E−04 | 5.3E−02 |
| ESR | 8.5 (8) | 19 (22) | 31 (25) | 29 (30) | 2.2E−16 | 2.2E−16 | 7.5E−1 |
| IgA (g/l) | 2.1 (0.674) | 2.8 (0.938) | 2.65 (1.04) | 2.9 (1.2) | 3.8E−03 | 1.6E−04 | 4.8E−01 |
| IgG (g/l) | 10.9 (1.35) | 12.8 (3.18) | 12.6 (3.19) | 16 (5.18) | 1.0E-05 | 6.1E−12 | 5.4E−03 |
| IgM (g/l) | 1 (0.393) | 0.93 (0.414) | 1.2 (0.526) | 0.82 (0.268) | 7.1E−01 | 1.0E−04 | 8.1E−03 |
| RF-IgA (IU/ml) | 3.7 (1.8) | 5.3 (3.8) | 5.7 (2.4) | 29.5 (30.6) | 3.1E−03 | 1.3E−10 | 1.5E−05 |
| RF-IgG (μg/ml) | 7.5 (3.2) | 11.0 (6.5) | 11.0 (6.4) | 26.0 (20.5) | 2.3E−03 | 6.4E−10 | 9.1E−04 |
| RF-IgM (IU/ml) | 1.1 (0.6) | 1.3 (2.2) | 1.2 (0.9) | 10.5 (14.6) | 0.7 | 4.2E−15 | 2.1 E−08 |
| Leucocytes (× E9/l) | 5.5 (1) | 5.1 (1.55) | 5.5 (1.7) | 4.8 (1.35) | 6.4E−01 | 4.9E−05 | 1.8E−02 |
| Lymphocytes (× E9/l) | 1.8 (0.3) | 1.1 (0.35) | 1.1 (0.362) | 0.9 (0.275) | 9.6E−17 | 5.7E−23 | 1.5E−01 |
| Neutrophils (× E9/l) | 3 (0.8) | 3.2 (1.3) | 3.55 (1.46) | 3.2 (1.17) | 3.4E−02 | 2.8E−01 | 2.7E−02 |
| Platelets (× E9/l) | 260 (36.5) | 234 (50) | 219 (47) | 225 (61.8) | 7.4E−06 | 8.0E−03 | 1.9E−01 |
| TG mmol/l) | 0.77 (0.275) | 1 (0.355) | 1.4 (0.385) | 0.9 (0.34) | 1.2E−10 | 1.1E−02 | 1.5E−03 |
| VCAM (μg/l) | 364 (71) | 388 (95) | 444 (93.9) | 367 (91.4) | 2.1E−04 | 4.4E−01 | 5.7E−02 |
1Data reported as median and IQR
2This column represents the data from the entire SLE cohort including the aPL+ and SSA/SSB+ SLE subgroups
3p value obtained by Wilcoxon rank-sum test or Fisher’s exact test. p values < 0.05 are highlighted in italics