Clinical characteristics
Clinical characteristics of the 17 SLE patients at the time of SF
sampling are summarized in Table 1. The patients were fairly
representative of a typical SLE population. Samples were collected at a
time of long disease history including long standing arthritis, often
polyarticular and which had occurred among the first disease
manifestations. Six of the patients (age at onset 28y, IQR 17-38) had
developed secondary knee osteoarthritis over time.