The association between antinuclear antibody and response to rituximab treatment in adult patients with primary immune thrombocytopenia

Figures & data

Table 1. Patient demographics and baseline characteristics.

	ANA-positive	ANA-negative	P
Median age (y) (range)	54 (16–86)	45 (16–84)	0.521
Male/female (n) (%)	29 (30)/69 (70)	74 (39)/115 (61)	0.109
Duration of ITP (month) (range)	6 (3–240)	6 (3–460)	0.419
Median platelet count (×10^9/L) (range)	11 (0–30)	13 (0–33)	0.133
Bleeding score (range)	1 (0–5)	0 (0–3)	0.319
IgG level (g/L) (range)	11.3 (6.6–19.7)	12.4 (6.8–19.0)	0.337
Bone marrow megakaryocyte count (range)	102 (16–366)	100 (17–389)	0.948

Table 2. Responses to rituximab in ANA-positive and ANA-negative patients.

	ANA-positive (n = 98)	ANA-negative (n = 189)	P
Initial response (within 3 months)
Overall response, n (%)	75 (76.5)	104 (55.0)	<0.001
CR, n (%)	46 (46.9)	55 (29.1)	0.003
6 Months
Overall response, n (%)	26 (26.5)	77 (40.7)	0.017
CR, n (%)	19 (19.4)	41 (21.7)	0.649
1 Year
Overall response, n (%)	5 (5.1)	67 (35.4)	<0.001
CR, n (%)	5 (5.1)	36 (19.0)	0.001
2 Years
Overall response, n (%)	1 (1.0)	40 (21.1)	<0.001
CR, n (%)	1 (1.0)	26 (13.8)	<0.001
Median TTR*, days (range)	28 (20–48)	30 (20–55)	0.087
Median DOR*, days (range)	128 (37–1825)	503 (40–2920)	<0.001

TTR*: time to response.

DOR*: duration of response.

Table 3. The effect of baseline characteristics on rituximab response by multivariable logistic regression analysis.

	B	S.E.	Wald	P	Exp (B)	95%CI*
Gender	0.365	0.264	1.919	0.166	1.441	0.859–2.417
Age	0.001	0.007	0.030	0.862	1.001	0.987–1.015
Platelet count	−0.010	0.015	0.422	0.516	0.991	0.962–1.019
ANAs	0.928	0.285	10.602	0.001	2.529	1.447–4.420
Bone marrow megakaryocyte count	0.003	0.002	2.663	0.103	1.003	0.999–1.007
Duration of ITP	−0.002	0.002	0.795	0.373	0.998	0.994–1.002
IgG (g/L)	−0.007	0.037	0.034	0.854	0.993	0.924–1.068
Rituximab dosage	−0.055	0.255	0.046	0.829	0.946	0.574–1.561
Constant	−0.138	0.757	0.033	0.855	0.871

CI*: confidence interval.

Figure 1. Kaplan–Meier analysis of patients who responded to rituximab treatment. The cumulative response was significantly higher in ANA-negative responders compared with ANA-positive responders (P < 0.001).