B lymphocytopenia in rheumatoid arthritis is associated with the DRB1 shared epitope and increased acute phase response.

In addition, the analysis of the prospectively documented values at study entry and after 1 year of observation showed a trend for higher CRP levels in B-cell low the group (median, 24.4 mg/l versus 9.2 mg/l [ P = 0.09], and 10.6 mg/l versus 5.0 mg/l [ P = 0.06], respectively) that reached significance after 2 and 4 years of observation (median, 16.4 mg/l versus 5.0 mg/l [ P = 0.01], and 14.0 mg/l versus 5.4 mg/l [ P = 0.01], respectively) (see Fig. 3a ).

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