Table 2

Effect of shared epitope on treatment response

Shared epitope status			Treatment group
			Methotrexate				Sulphasalazine-hydroxychloroquine				All three drugs
			Successful completers	Efficacy failures		Successful completers	Efficacy failures	Successful completers			Efficacy failures	MTX v triple	S and H v triple	MTX v S and H
Positive	7 (32%)	15		10 (45%)	12	17 (94%)	1		<0.001	<0.002	0.35
Negative	5 (83%)	1		3 (38%)	5	7 (88%)	1		0.69	0.06	0.09
p Value2-150	<0.04			0.52		0.53

↵2-150 p Value for comparisons of completers based on epitope status within each treatment group.
↵2-151 p Value for comparison of treatment groups with the same epitope status.