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. 2020 Jun 3;6(2):e001202. doi: 10.1136/rmdopen-2020-001202

Table 1.

Baseline characteristics and 6-month survival of patients included in seasonal and geographical analysis, stratified by myositis-specific autoantibodies

Variables Seasonal analysis (n=365) Geographical analysis (n=481)
Anti-MDA5
(n=166)
Anti-ARS
(n=120)
Anti-MDA5-/ARS- negative
(n=79)
P value Anti-MDA5
(n=200)
Anti-ARS
(n=164)
Anti-MDA5-/ARS-negative
(n=117)
P value
Demographics
 Age at onset, years 55 [29–78] 59 [29–78] 63 [33–84] <0.01 56 [30–80] 56 [27–78] 61 [30–83] 0.01
 Male 64 (39%) 35 (29%) 30 (38%) 0.22 70 (35%) 45 (27%) 46 (39%) 0.10
 Disease duration, months 2 [0–12] 3 [0–23] 3 [0–21] <0.01 2 [0–21] 3 [0–95] 3 [0–73] <0.01
Initial symptoms
 Skin eruption 93 (56%) 16 (13%) 36 (46%) <0.01 112 (56%) 21 (13%) 48 (41%) <0.01
 Respiratory symptoms 34 (20%) 62 (52%) 15 (19%) <0.01 41 (21%) 79 (48%) 28 (24%) <0.01
 Fever 21 (13%) 13 (11%) 10 (13%) 0.91 24 (12%) 19 (12%) 12 (10%) 0.92
 Arthralgia 12 (7%) 9 (8%) 3 (4%) 0.56 11 (6%) 12 (7%) 6 (5%) 0.74
 Muscle symptoms 4 (2%) 8 (7%) 12 (15%) <0.01 6 (3%) 15 (9%) 16 (14%) <0.01
 Others 2 (1%) 12 (10%) 3 (4%) <0.01 6 (3%) 18 (11%) 7 (6%) 0.01
Diagnosis
 PM 2 (1%) 28 (23%) 15 (19%) <0.01 2 (1%) 45 (27%) 28 (24%) <0.01
 Classic DM 32 (19%) 46 (38%) 36 (46%) 43 (22%) 63 (38%) 47 (40%)
 CADM 132 (80%) 46 (38%) 28 (35%) 155 (78%) 56 (34%) 42 (36%)
Serum biomarkers
 CRP, mg/dL 1.0 [0.0–5.6] 0.8 [0.0–21.6] 0.4 [0.0–26.3] 0.08 0.9 [0.0–5.7] 0.8 [0.0–20.1] 0.4 [0.0–20.3] 0.02
 CK, IU/L 147 [33–3209] 419 [31–4142] 414 [48–7505] <0.01 140 [25–2925] 410 [32–4165] 337 [36–9378] <0.01
 KL-6, U/mL 766
[284–2491]
954
[202–5074]
669
[207–10 257]
0.01 757
[263–2402]
947
[224–5074]
646
[176–6587]
<0.01
 Ferritin, ng/mL 670 [24–6783] 223 [10–2386] 186 [26–4808] <0.01 668 [32–6420] 191 [11–2278] 210 [23–3766] <0.01
 6-month survival rates 67% 98% 96% <0.01 68% 99% 97% <0.01

Continuous variables are shown as the median [2.5–97.5 percentile]. Categorical variables are shown as n (%). The p-value for diagnosis was calculated by Fisher’s exact test for a 3×3 table. Disease duration means duration from symptom onset to disease diagnosis. Initial symptoms were classified into skin eruption (ie, specific and non-specific skin lesions, and itch), respiratory symptoms (ie, cough and dyspnoea), fever, joint symptoms (ie, arthritis and arthralgia), muscle symptoms (ie, weakness and myalgia) and others. Six-month survival was calculated by the Kaplan–Meier method.

ARS, aminoacyl tRNA synthetase; CADM, clinically amyopathic dermatomyositis; CK, creatine kinase; CRP, C reactive protein; DM, dermatomyositis; KL-6, Krebs von den Lungen-6; MDA5, melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5; PM, polymyositis.