Interleukin-18 in Brazilian Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: Can Leflunomide Reduce It?

Table 1

Clinical and laboratory data for the RA and CG groups.

Data	RA	CG
Sample n (%)	140	40	0.0657
Female	130 (92.8%)	33 (82.5%)
Male	10 (7.2%)	7 (17.5%)
Age in years, mean ± SEM	54.0 (±12.0)	51.5 (±8.5)	0,0943
Race and ethnicity classifications
Indigenous	1	0	ns
Multiracial	49	9	ns
Black or African American	60	22	ns
White	30	9	ns
Disease duration, years, mean ± SEM	10.0 (±7.8)
+ rheumatoid factor (n%)	113 (80.7%)
ESR mm/h, median, (range)	36 (2–125)
Disease classification (n%)
CDAI, mean ± SEM	18.5 (±13.0)
Low disease activity (≤10)	45 (32%)
Moderate and high disease activity (>10)	95 (68%)
DAS28 mean ± SEM	4.5 (±1.5)
Low disease activity (≤3.2)	31 (22.2%)
Moderate and high disease activity (>3.2)	109 (77.8%)
Treatment (n)
None (naïve for treatment)	60
Prednisone only	11
Methotrexate only	12
Leflunomide only	7
More than one treatment	50
Comorbidities (n)
None	109
Diabetes mellitus	9
Obesity	6
Osteoporosis	12
Systemic arterial hypertension	24

CG- control group; SEM- standard error of mean; ESR- erythrocyte sedimentation rate.