Characteristics of mRSS progression according to autoantibody status
| Autoantibody make-up | Anti-TOPO-isomerase (anti-Scl70) (TOPO) | Anti-RNA polymerase III (Pol3) | Anticentromere (ACA) | None | Total | P | Missing at baseline, n (%) |
| (TOPO+) (Pol3– or N/A) (ACA– or N/A) | (TOPO– or N/A) (Pol3+) (ACA– or N/A) | (TOPO– or N/A) (Pol3– or N/A) (ACA+) | (TOPO−) (Pol3−) (ACA−) | ||||
| n=124 (47.3%) | n=50 (19.1%) | n=20 (7.6%) | n=68 (26.0%) | n=262 (100%) | |||
| mRSS at baseline (0–51) | 19 (15–25.5) | 24 (19-31) | 20 (17–24.5) | 20 (16–24) | 20 (16–26) | 0.003 | 0 (0) |
| mRSS peak* | 26 (19.5–33.5) | 35 (26–40) | 29 (26–35) | 24.5 (17.5–29) | 27 (21–34.5) | 0.001 | 0 (0) |
| Difference in mRSS between baseline and peak* | 5 (3–10.5) | 7 (3–10) | 4 (4–11) | 3 (1.5–7) | 5 (3–10) | 0.059 | 0 (0) |
| Months since onset of skin thickening (at baseline) | 12.6 (6.2–21.6) | 11.2 (7.8–17.9) | 14.9 (5.4–24.0) | 12.6 (9.2–21.9) | 12.6 (7.3–21.5) | 0.593 | 10 (3.8) |
| Months until peak since onset of skin thickening* | 21.0 (12.9–31.6) | 16.3 (12.9–21.4) | 29.3 (15.5–35.7) | 20.1 (13.2–32) | 19.0 (12.9–30.0) | 0.199 | 5 (3.9) |
| Months until peak since baseline* | 6.4 (4.0–14.4) | 5.8 (2.9–12.0) | 6.5 (2.9–9.2) | 6.0 (3.1–11.6) | 6.2 (3.2–12.1) | 0.329 | 0 (0) |
| Progressor (5 points and 25% according to baseline) | 29 (25.9) | 14 (29.2) | 4 (23.5) | 7 (11.9) | 54 (22.9) | 0.105 | 26 (9.9) |
Median (IQR) unless otherwise indicated.
P values refer to the Kruskal-Wallis (for continuous variables) or Fisher’s test (for categorical variables).
*For these comparisons, an unrestricted definition of progression was used, meaning that all 160 patients in the cohort with mRSS progression of any magnitude were initially considered but only 128 of those could be included because of patients with missing autoantibody data.
This table includes comparisons of patient characteristics at baseline between different autoantibody groups, using the subset of 262 patients for whom the autoantibody status could be assessed.
mRSS, modified Rodnan skin score; N/A, not available.