Severe adverse events according to treatment group
| Severe adverse event | Azathioprine group (n=58) | Rituximab group (n=57) |
| No. of events | ||
| Infection | 20 | 31 |
| Bronchitis | 1 | 10 |
| Pneumonia with respiratory distress syndrome | 3 | 6 |
| Infectious diarrhoea | 4 | 2 |
| Cholecystitis | 2 | 1 |
| Acute urinary infection | 2 | 1 |
| Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia | 1 | 2 |
| Sepsis | 1 | 1 |
| Lung aspergillosis | 2 | 0 |
| Pleural effusion | 1 | 0 |
| Bacterial endocarditis | 1 | 0 |
| Varicella zoster virus infection | 1 | 1 |
| Lung tuberculosis | 0 | 1 |
| Lung atypical mycobacterial infection | 1 | 0 |
| Oesophageal candidiasis | 0 | 1 |
| Colon diverticulitis | 0 | 1 |
| Appendicitis | 0 | 1 |
| Bacterial orchitis | 0 | 1 |
| Infected elbow hygroma | 0 | 1 |
| Unspecified viral infection | 0 | 1 |
| Cardiovascular events | 5 | 6 |
| Cancer | 6 | 2 |
| Skin (non-melanoma) | 4 | 0 |
| Prostate | 0 | 2 |
| Pancreas | 1 | 0 |
| Gastrointestinal stromal tumour | 1 | 0 |