Table 2.

Disease characteristics of 77 patients with SLE

	Baseline	Follow-up	P value
Disease duration, years	11.4 (8.9)	18.7 (9.0)	NA
History of nephritis %	35.6	45.8	0.5
Flare during follow-up %	NA	69.3	NA
SLEDAI	3.0 (4.1)	1.6 (2.7)	0.008
SLICC	1.1 (1.5)	2.1 (1.4)	< 0.001
History of APS %	NA	24.6	–
aPL antibodies %	44.9	NA	–
Current SLE medications %
Prednisolone	59.7	53.3	0.3
Current dose, mg/day	6.3 (4.5)	6.1 (3.5)	0.9
HCQ	51.9	43.2	0.3
AZA	19.5	10.7	0.1
MTX	10.4	6.7	0.7
MMF	7.8	17.3	0.065
No DMARDs	10.4	25.3	0.003
History of SLE medications (ever) %
Prednisone	92.2	97.4	0.3
Cumulative duration, months	67.5 (67.8)	117.3 (97.2)	NA
Cumulative dose, g	16.7 (15.0)	26.7 (21.7)	NA
Average dose, mg/day	4.1 (3.3)	4.2 (4.2)	0.3
HCQ	87.0	93.5	0.063
Cyclophosphamide and/or rituximab	16.9	35.6	< 0.001

Values are means (SD) unless noted otherwise; p value represents the comparisons between baseline and follow-up assessments.

aPL, antiphospholipid antibodies; APS, antiphospholipid syndrome; AZA, azathioprine; DMARDs, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs; HCQ, hydroxychloroquine; MMF, mycophenolate mofetil; MTX, methotrexate; NA, not available; SLEDAI, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (without laboratory tests); SLICC, Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (damage index).