MTX successes* (n = 79) | MTX failures* (n = 162) | p Value | |
Age at diagnosis (years) | 56 (14) | 54 (13) | 0.455 |
Female sex (%) | 56 | 77 | 0.001† |
Time diagnosis inclusion (weeks), median (IQR) | 3 (1–6) | 2 (1–4) | 0.022 |
Symptom duration (weeks), median (IQR) | 23 (12–53) | 26 (15–55) | 0.367 |
IgM rheumatoid factor positive (%) | 62 | 67 | 0.420 |
ESR (mm in 1st hour) | 39 (27) | 45 (29) | 0.142 |
Tender joints | 12 (6.8) | 16 (6.8) | <0.001 |
Swollen joints | 15 (7.1) | 15 (6.5) | 0.709 |
DAS | 4.2 (0.9) | 4.7 (0.8) | <0.001† |
HAQ (0–3) | 1.2 (0.7) | 1.5 (0.6) | <0.001 |
Total Sharp score (0–448 scale), median (IQR) | 3.5 (1–8.5) | 4.5 (1.5–9) | 0.350 |
Mean (SD) | 7 (9) | 7 (8) | |
Erosions on hand/foot radiograph (%) | 72 | 74 | 0.713 |
*“MTX successes” are patients with a DAS ⩽2.4 after 2 years while still on MTX monotherapy. “MTX failures” are patients who discontinued MTX because of a DAS >2.4 or adverse events. IQR, interquartile range; ESR, erythrocyte sedimentation rate; DAS, disease activity score (44 joint count); HAQ, health assessment questionnaire; MTX, methotrexate. Values are given in mean (SD) if not indicated otherwise. When not normally distributed, medians and IQRs of variables are reported. Significance between variables was tested by Student t test for normally distributed continuous variables; Mann-Whitney U test for non-normally distributed variables; χ2 test for dichotomous variables. For total Sharp score, both median (IQR) and mean (SD) are given; significance was tested by the Mann-Whitney U test. †Independent predictor for “MTX failure” after logistic regression analysis.