Table 1.
Clinical and biochemical characteristics of the NMOSD and control groups under study
| Baseline characteristics | NMOSD N = 56 |
Control N = 100 |
p-valueb |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age (years) | 35.89 ± 9.39 | 37.40 ± 6.68 | 0.24 |
| Sex (Female) | 50 (89.3%) | 93 (93.0%) | 0.42 |
| BMI (kg/m2) | 26.61 ± 5.15 | 26.82 ± 5.45 | 0.81 |
| History of alcohol consumption (whisky and/or vodka) | 2 (3.57%) | 1 (1%) | 0.26 |
| History of smoking | 3 (5.35%) | 6 (6%) | 0.86 |
| Physical activity (Ln MET-min/week) | 7.36 ± 2.09 | 7.60 ± 1.07 | 0.38 |
| Duration of the disease (years) | 4.16 ± 2.91 | – | – |
| Age of onset (years) | 32.28 ± 9.11 | – | – |
| Medications- | |||
| Azathioprine | 13 (23.2%) | ||
| Rituximab | 43 (76.8%) | ||
| Comorbidity | 8 (14.28%) | – | |
| EDSS scorea | 3 (3.5) | ||
| Biochemical and laboratory analysis | |||
| FBS (mg/dL) | 85.47 ± 6.93 | 90.42 ± 9.03 | 0.003 |
| Ln.HDL (mg/dL) | 3.89 ± 0.23 | 3.93 ± 0.20 | 0.29 |
| LDL (mg/dL) | 100.71 ± 71 | 105.97 ± 97 | 0.27 |
| Ln.TG (mg/dL) | 4.71 ± 0.46 | 4.57 ± 0.48 | 0.07 |
| Chol (mg/dL) | 171.75 ± 32.62 | 177.77 ± 34.67 | 0.29 |
| Ln.Insulin (μU/L) | 2.78 ± 0.88 | 2.12 ± 0.48 | 0.0001 |
| Ln. SAT (U/L) | 3.30 ± 0.28 | 3.24 ± 0.31 | 0.15 |
| Ln.ALT (U/L) | 2.94 ± 0.31 | 2.81 ± 0.45 | 0.038 |
| Ln.IL-17 (pg/ml) | 2.00 ± 1.18 | 1.11 ± 0.81 | 0.0001 |
| Ln.IL-6 (pg/ml) | 3.76 ± 0.74 | 3.34 ± 0.62 | 0.008 |
amedian (IQR)
bComparisons between study groups were performed using the Student’s t-test for continuous variables and χ2 test for categorical variables
Numerical variables were expressed as the mean ± SD except for EDSS (median (IQR). Categorical variables were presented as number (percentages). Values in bold indicate statistical significance (P < 0.05)
ALT alanine aminotransferase, SAT serum agglutination test, BMI body mass index, EDSS expanded disability status scale, FBS fast blood sugar, Chol total cholesterol, HDL high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, IL-6 interlukine-6, IL-17 interlukine-17, LDL low-density lipoprotein, Ln natural log, MET metabolic equivalent of task, TG triglyceride
HDL, TG, insulin, SAT, ALT, IL-17A, and IL-6 did not have a normal distribution, a natural log transformation was applied to correct their normality distribution