[Prediction of the response to basic treatment in rheumatoid polyarthritis. Retrospective study apropos of 140...

In order to isolate prognostic factors of the response to basic treatment in the course of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the authors are comparing, within the scope of a retrospective study of 140 patients, the initial clinical, biological and radiological characteristics of two populations of 70 "responding" and "non responding" patients at the end of a mean course of 48.8 months. As there are significantly more males in the "responding" group, two different statistical studies are conducted for male and female patients. The first stage of the analysis enables to select a certain number of average variables or of very different distribution between "responding" and "non responding". The second stage enables, with the help of these variables, to conduct an analysis of the main components: a satisfactory discrimination between "responding and non responding" may thus be obtained for male patients; this is not confirmed for female patients, probably because this population is heterogeneous. The last stage consists in a discriminating, step-by-step ascending analysis conducted on the male population; a discriminating function is then established, permitting to differentiate correctly 82 p. cent of the patients between "responding" and "non responding". Finally, a prognostic index, easier to use, is also established, using five discriminating variables for male patients, permitting to differentiate correctly 87 p. cent of the patients.