Table 2.
Treatment regimens with various drug combinations in patient groups based on different disease durations.
| Characteristics | All patients with AS (n=958) | Duration≤5 years (n=305) |
Duration>5 years and ≤10 years (n=332) |
Duration >10 years (n=321) |
P valuea |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSAIDs, % | 98.2 | 97.7 | 99.1 | 97.8 | 0.329 |
| TNFi, % | 20.8 | 18.7 | 22.3 | 21.2 | 0.522 |
| csDMARDs, % | 66.4 | 65.6 | 68.1 | 65.4 | 0.723 |
| Sulfasalazine | 25.2 | 32.8 | 25.6 | 17.4 | 0.001∗ |
| Leflunomide | 13.5 | 15.1 | 13.0 | 12.5 | 0.595 |
| Methotrexate | 3.3 | 5.2 | 2.7 | 2.2 | 0.075 |
| Thalidomide | 23.7 | 13.8 | 25.0 | 31.8 | <0.001∗ |
| TCM, % | 62.4 | 61.0 | 63.0 | 63.2 | 0.819 |
| Treatment regimen, % | |||||
| NSAIDs monotherapy | 22.5 | 26.0 | 20.3 | 21.6 | |
| TNFi monotherapy | 0.6 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.6 | |
| NSAIDs + csDMARDs | 56.3 | 54.6 | 57.9 | 56.2 | |
| NSAIDs + TNFi | 10.3 | 7.2 | 11.5 | 11.9 | |
| NSAIDs + TNFi + csDMARDs | 9.5 | 10.2 | 10.0 | 8.4 |
AS: ankylosing spondylitis; NSAIDs: nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; TNFi: TNF inhibitors; csDMARDs: conventional synthetic disease modifying antirheumatic drugs; TCM: traditional Chinese medicine. ∗P < 0.05.