Demographics, clinical data, and cytokine measurements of the patients with RA studied
| Leflunomide* (n = 50) | Methotrexate* (n = 50) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | 4 Months | p Value | 1 Year | p Value | Baseline | 4 Months | p Value | 1 Year | p Value | |
| Results are given as mean (SEM). | ||||||||||
| *Patients receiving leflunomide were aged 62 (range 46–75) years, with mean (SEM) disease duration 49 (6) months; patients receiving methotrexate were aged 58 (22–74) years, with disease duration 42 (5) months. | ||||||||||
| DAS | 6.9 (0.1) | 5.6 (0.2) | <0.0001 | 5.2 (0.2) | <0.0001 | 7.0 (0.1) | 5.3 (0.2) | <0.0001 | 4.2 (0.2) | <0.0001 |
| CRP (mg/l) | 5.3 (0.9) | 2.2 (0.5) | <0.0001 | 2.1 (0.5) | <0.0001 | 3.5 (0.4) | 1.3 (0.2) | <0.0001 | 0.9 (0.2) | <0.0001 |
| Interferon γ (pg/ml) | 43 (10) | 38 (8) | NS | 29 (7) | 0.015 | 57 (10) | 44 (7) | NS | 36 (6) | 0.046 |
| Interleukin 6 (pg/ml) | 158 (41) | 180 (67) | NS | 151 (48) | NS | 107 (23) | 93 (25) | 0.02 | 80 (20) | 0.05 |