Table 2.

Predictors of clinical response to MTX: patients and disease characteristics.

Factors	Predictor of Response?	Multivariate Analysis OR	Univariate Analysis	Studies	Type of Study
Age	No	NS	NS	All studies	All
Renal function	No	NS		Felson²	Metaanalysis
		NS	NS	Wessels³	Early RA
		OR 0.99	OR 0.99	Hoekstra⁴	Established RA
Ethnicity	No data
Sex	Yes; men respond better vs women	OR 0.3 premenopausal	Yes	Wessels³	Early RA
		OR 0.5 postmenopausal trend
		OR 1.75 (men)	OR 1.79	Hoekstra⁴, Lie⁷	Established RA
		OR 0.69 (women)
RF + combined with smoking	Yes; respond less	OR 0.1	NS	Wessels³	Early RA
RF+	Trend in early RA; no in established RA	OR 0.5 (0.2–1.2), trend	Trend	Wessels³,	Recent-onset RA
RF+	Trend in early RA; no in established RA	NS	NS	Hoekstra⁴, Lie⁷	Established RA
Anti-CCP +	No (1 study only)	NS	NS	Wessels³	Early RA
Smoking	No	NS	Trend	Wessels³	Early RA
Prior DMARD	Respond less	OR 0.81		Lie⁷	Established RA
Disease duration	Uncertain	NS	NS	Wessels³	Early RA
		NS		Hoekstra⁴, Lie⁷	Established RA
		OR 0.88 (5 yr duration), trend p = 0.07

NS: not statistically significant; DMARD: disease modifying antirheumatic drugs; CCP: cyclic citrullinated peptide.