Patients with SLE without prior severe organ involvement (n=24) | Patients with SLE with prior severe organ involvement (n=49) | P value | |
Demographics | |||
Age at time of GC discontinuation (years) | 44.00 (38.00, 51.75) | 45.00 (35.00, 54.00) | 0.97 |
Female ratio (%) | 24 (100.0) | 46 (93.9) | 0.55 |
BMI (kg/m2) | 20.08 (18.14, 22.17) | 19.51 (17.91, 21.11) | 0.66 |
Ethnicity: Japanese ratio | 21 (87.5) | 48 (98.0) | 0.06 |
Disease duration before GC discontinuation (days) | 2379 (1547, 3345) | 4367 (1881, 6683) | 0.06 |
Duration of GC exposure before GC discontinuation (days) | 1962 (1180, 2701) | 4136 (957, 6683) | 0.02 |
Time needed to discontinue GC from PSL equivalent 5 mg (days) | 934 (526, 1591) | 777 (350, 1365) | 0.33 |
Organ involvement | |||
Joints and muscles | 22 (91.7) | 38 (77.6) | 0.20 |
Skin/mucous membranes | 20 (83.3) | 39 (81.2) | 1 |
Haematologic abnormalities | 14 (58.3) | 32 (65.3) | 0.61 |
Serositis | 7 (29.2) | 7 (14.3) | 0.20 |
Renal manifestation | 0 (0.0) | 35 (71.4) | <0.01 |
Lupus nephritis class: Class III/IV | 0 (0.0) | 13 (37.1) | |
Non-class III/IV | 0 (0.0) | 12 (34.3) | |
No data | 0 (0.0) | 10 (28.6) | |
Neurological manifestation | 0 (0.0) | 6 (12.2) | 0.17 |
Laboratory data | |||
Anti-dsDNA Ab | 13 (54.2) | 35 (71.4) | 0.19 |
Anti-Sm Ab | 2 (8.3) | 8 (16.7) | 0.48 |
Anti-SSA/Ro Ab | 11 (45.8) | 22 (46.8) | 1 |
Anti-RNP Ab | 5 (23.8) | 13 (31.0) | 0.77 |
Lupus anticoagulant | 3 (12.5) | 8 (16.7) | 0.74 |
Anti-CL Ab | 3 (13.6) | 18 (37.5) | 0.052 |
Anti-CL β2GPI Ab | 2 (9.5) | 3 (6.5) | 0.65 |
Prior treatment regimen | |||
PSL 1 mg/kg/day | 0 (0.0) | 29 (59.2) | <0.01 |
mPSL pulse therapy | 0 (0.0) | 16 (32.7) | <0.01 |
Maximum GC dose (mg/day) * | 20 (10, 25) | 60 (40, 60) | <0.01 |
B cell targeting/cytotoxic agent | 0 (0.0) | 4 (8.2) | 0.30 |
Values are expressed as number (%) or median (IQR)
*Prednisolone equivalent (mg/day).
Ab, antibody; anti-RNP Ab, antiribonucleoprotein antibody; anti-Sm Ab, anti-Smith antibody; BMI, body mass index; CL, cardiolipin; dsDNA, double stranded DNA ; GC, glucocorticoid; mPSL, methylprednisolone; PSL, prednisolone; β2GPI, β2-glycoprotein I.