Figure 2.

Comparison of peripheral B-cell subsets across three diseases and validation of B-cell biomarkers of relape. B-cell subsets including naïve (A), memory (B), and plasmablast (C) were compared between patients with rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and AAV at rituximab initiation. The latter was divided into those with and without severe systemic inflammation; raised CRP (i.e., >10 mg/L). The box plots denote median, and the error bars represent Tukeys. Analyses were performed using Kruskal-Wallis followed by Mann-Whitney U test. Naïve B-cell repopulation at 6 months as a biomarker of later relapse was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis in both the published discovery cohort (D) and the validation cohort (E).