Table 2.
Spearman’s correlation matrix of associations between histopathological parameters in TABs from GCA patients.
| CD3+ | CD4+ | CD8+ | CD4+:CD8+ | NFATC+ | NFATC+:CD4+ | CD20+ | CD68+ | MGCs | Eosinophils | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [cells/mm2] | [cells/mm2] | [cells/mm2] | ratio | [cells/mm2] | ratio | [cells/mm2] | [score] | [score] | [score] | |
| CD3+ [cells/mm2] | 1 | |||||||||
| CD4+ [cells/mm2] | 0.988*** | 1 | ||||||||
| CD8+ [cells/mm2] | 0.971*** | 0.954*** | 1 | |||||||
| CD4+:CD8+ ratio | –0.717*** | –0.660*** | –0.812*** | 1 | ||||||
| NFATC+ [cells/mm2] | 0.959*** | 0.964*** | 0.947*** | –0.694*** | 1 | |||||
| NFATC+:CD4+ ratio | 0.292* | 0.273 | 0.332* | –0.241 | 0.477** | 1 | ||||
| CD20+ [cells/mm2] | 0.907*** | 0.902*** | 0.897*** | –0.698*** | 0.882*** | 0.329* | 1 | |||
| CD68+ [score] | 0.846*** | 0.835*** | 0.884*** | –0.812*** | 0.852*** | 0.365* | 0.790*** | 1 | ||
| MGCs [score] | 0.846*** | 0.830*** | 0.865*** | –0.781*** | 0.861*** | 0.435** | 0.785*** | 0.923*** | 1 | |
| Eosinophils [score] | 0.739*** | 0.724*** | 0.777*** | –0.724*** | 0.743*** | 0.364* | 0.619*** | 0.786*** | 0.881*** | 1 |
MGC, multinucleated giant cell. Spearman’s correlation coefficients (ρ) between evaluated histopathological parameters in TABs from 46 GCA patients, including 30 TAB-positive and 16 TAB-negative GCA patients. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant (*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001).