TY  - JOUR
T1  - C-reactive protein is still a potential aid in rheumatoid arthritis predictors—reply
AU  - Shadick NA, Karlson EW, Lee I
Y1  - 2007/07/23
N1  - 10.1001/archinte.167.14.1552-b
JO  - Archives of Internal Medicine
SP  - 1552
EP  - 1552
VL  - 167
IS  - 14
N2  - 
Tanzer raises 2 issues for discussion related to potential confounders in our study examining the association of CRP level with the risk of developing RA.1 First, as he indicates, smoking is a known risk factor for incident RA. In our cohort, 38% of RA cases were never smokers and 52% were past smokers at the time of diagnosis vs 52% and 37%, respectively, among women who did not develop RA. In our analyses, we adjusted for smoking status; thus, our findings were unlikely to reflect confounding by smoking. Second, regarding statin use, the blood samples in our study were collected between 1993 and 1995, a period when the prevalence of statin use was relatively low. We did not have data on statin use at baseline to adjust for this; however, there was unlikely to be major confounding because there was unlikely to be many women using statins.

SN  - 0003-9926
M3  - doi: 10.1001/archinte.167.14.1552-b
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinte.167.14.1552-b
ER  -