Clinical parameters of RA and HCs
| Characteristics | Whole RA (n=129) | HCs (n=83) | P value | Patients with whole RA (n=129) | ||
| Early RA (n=85) | Established RA (n=44) | P value | ||||
| Demographics | ||||||
| Age, mean±SE, years | 54.1±3.6 | 50.9±2.4 | 0.791 | 53.3±4.8 | 55.2±2.3 | 0.627 |
| Sex (F/M) | 113/16 | 71/12 | 0.210 | 72/13 | 41/3 | 0.423 |
| Disease duration, median (IQR), months | 6.9 (3.0–13.0) | – | 3.1 (1.0–6.0) | 11.4 (6.0–14.0) | 0.006 | |
| Disease characteristics | ||||||
| ESR, mean±SE, mm/hour | 53.3±2.3 | – | 52.1±3.3 | 55.6±2.8 | 0.741 | |
| CRP, mean±SE, mg/L | 41.8±4.4 | – | 39.8±7.2 | 43.5±2.9 | 0.912 | |
| TJC, mean±SE | 7.0±1.6 | – | 7.0±2.8 | 7.0±1.2 | 0.871 | |
| SJC, mean±SE | 8.0±1.4 | – | 7.0±1.1 | 9.0±2.0 | 0.793 | |
| Global health on VAS, mean±SE | 7.0±0.2 | – | 7.8±0.1 | 6.0±0.7 | 0.629 | |
| DAS28-ESR, mean±SE | 5.6±0.2 | – | 5.8±0.7 | 5.5±0.3 | 0.822 | |
| RF (+), n (%) | 95 (73.6) | – | 68 (80.0) | 27 (61.4) | 0.567 | |
| ACPA (+), n (%) | 69 (53.5) | – | 47 (55.3) | 22 (25.9) | 0.519 | |
| Medications | ||||||
| HCQ, n (%) | 46 (35.7) | – | 30 (35.3) | 16 (36.4) | 0.912 | |
| MTX, n (%) | 27 (20.9) | – | 20 (23.5) | 7 (15.9) | 0.264 | |
| LEF, n (%) | 39 (30.2) | – | 13 (15.3) | 26 (59.1) | 0.183 | |
| TG, n (%) | 36 (27.9) | – | 18 (21.2) | 18 (40.8) | 0.622 | |
ACPA, anticyclic citrullinated peptide antibody; CRP, C reaction protein; DAS28-ESR, Disease Activity Score in 28 joints based on erythrocyte sedimentation rate; ESR, erythrocyte sedimentation rate; HCQ, hydroxychloroquine; HCs, healthy controls; LEF, leflunomide; MTX, methotrexate; RA, rheumatoid arthritis; RF, rheumatoid factor; SJC, swollen joint count; TG, tripterygium glycosides; TJC, tender joint count; VAS, Visual Analog Scale.