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Footnotes
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FG, RL-M and JAM-F all contributed equally. MAG-G and JL shared senior authorship in this study.
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Acknowledgements The authors thank Mrs Susana Escandon and Isabel Castro-Fernandez, nurses from the Rheumatology Outpatient Clinic, and Ms Pilar Ruiz, a nurse from the Haematology Division, and the members of the Biochemistry Department from Hospital Xeral-Calde, Lugo, for their valuable help to undertake this study.
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Contributors FG and RL-M performed the study, contributed to the elaboration of the protocol of study, helped in the interpretation of data and in the elaboration of the manuscript. JAM-F recruited patients for the study, contributed to the elaboration of the protocol of study, helped in the interpretation of data and the elaboration of the manuscript. BU and RO performed the ELISA studies and helped in the interpretation of data. BC-L, RB, JR-G, TP and CG-J helped in the interpretation of data and contributed to the elaboration of the manuscript. IG-A performed the statistical analysis, helped in the interpretation of data and contributed to the elaboration of the manuscript. JL contributed to the elaboration of the protocol of study, helped in the interpretation of data and the elaboration of the manuscript and performed the statistical analysis. MAG-G recruited patients for the study, contributed to the elaboration of the protocol of study, helped in the interpretation of data and was responsible of the final drafting and elaboration of the manuscript.
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Funding This study was supported by grants from ‘Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias’ PI06/0024, PS09/00748 and PI12/00060 (Spain). This work was also partially supported by RETICS Program, RD08/0075 and RD12/0009/0013 (RIER) from ‘Instituto de Salud Carlos III’ (ISCIII) (Spain).
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Competing interests None.
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Patient consent Obtained.
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Ethics approval Local institutional committee approval was obtained.
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Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.