Table 2 Radiological scores at 2 and 4 years as well as change in these scores from baseline to 4 years for all patients who at the 2-year control point were in remission or not in remission and separately for the two treatment groups

	All patients (n = 150)			Prednisolone group (n = 64)			No prednisolone group (n = 86)
	In remission (n = 61)	No remission (n = 89)	p Value	In remission (n = 35)	No remission (n = 29)	p Value	In remission (n = 26)	No remission (n = 60)	p Value
TS 2 years	3.0 (1.0–8.5)	8.0 (2.0–20.5)	0.005	2.5 (0.5–6.5)	12.0 (5.5–21.5)	0.000	4.5 (2.0–10.0)	6.0 (1.0–16.0)	0.690
ES 2 years	1.0 (0.0–2.5)	3.5 (0.5–8.5)	0.002	0.8 (0.0–2.5)	3.8 (1.0–10.0)	0.007	2.0 (0.5–3.0)	3.0 (0.5–8.0)	0.131
JSN 2 years	1.5 (0.0–5.0)	4.0 (1.0–12.0)	0.007	1.0 (0.0–3.5)	7.0 (2.3–14.0)	0.001	3.0 (1.0–7.5)	3.0 (1.0–8.5)	0.692
TS 4 years	7.5 (2.0–11.5)	13.5 (3.0–25.0)	0.009	7.0 (2.0–10.0)	16.0 (8.0–28.5)	0.001	7.5 (4.0–16.0)	13.0 (2.0–20.0)	0.644
ES 4 years	1.0 (0.0–3.0)	3.0 (0.0–8.0)	0.005	1.0 (0.0–2.0)	3.5 (1.5–9.0)	0.002	1.0 (0.0–4.0)	3.0 (0.0–6.5)	0.300
JSN 4 years	5.0 (2.0–9.5)	9.0 (2.0–15.5)	0.015	3.5 (2.0–9.0)	9.5 (6.5–19.5)	0.003	5.5 (2.0–11.0)	8.5 (2.0–14.0)	0.631
TS change 0–4 years	5.5 (1.5–10.0)	11.0 (2.0–20.0)	0.024	4.5 (2.0–7.5)	12.0 (4.0–24.5)	0.006	6.5 (1.5–12.0)	10.5 (1.0–20.0)	0.466
ES change 0–4 years	0.5 (0.0–2.0)	2.5 (0.0–6.5)	0.003	0.0 (0.0–1.0)	3.0 (1.0–9.0)	0.001	1.0 (0.0–2.5)	1.5 (0.0–6.0)	0.209
JSN change 0–4 years	4.0 (1.0–8.5)	7.0 (2.0–14.0)	0.051	3.0 (1.0–7.0)	8.0 (3.0–17.0)	0.020	4.5 (1.0–10.0)	6.5 (1.0–14.0)	0.527

TS, total Sharp score; ES, erosion score; JSN, joint space narrowing.
Medians with interquartile ranges are shown. p Values are between patients in remission versus not in remission. p Values in bold are those that are significant. Radiographs were available from 138 patients at baseline, from 144 at 2 years and from 128 at 4 years.