Clinical characteristics of patients in Group 1 (single positive) and Group 2 (double positive group)
Variables
Group 1 (n = 29) (%)
Group 2 (n = 25) (%)
Age (year)
40.7 (17.7)a
34.0 (27.0, 55.5)b
Age group
Under 25
8 (27.6)
6 (24.0)
26–45
9 (31.0)
11 (44.0)
46 and older
12 (41.4)
8 (32.0)
Disease progression
≤ 1 year
5 (17.2)
10 (40.0)
2–4 years
7 (24.1)
8 (32.0)
≥ 5 years
6 (20.7)
5 (20.0)
Missing
11 (37.9)
2 (8.0)
Diagnosis
SLE
4 (13.8)
14 (56.0)
SS
1 (3.4)
2 (8.0)
MCTD
4 (13.8)
1 (4.0)
Other AID
9 (31.0)
6 (24.0)
Others
11 (37.9)
2 (8.0)
Menopause status
Yes
9 (31.0)
7 (28.0)
No
20 (69.0)
18 (72.0)
Medication
On steroid
16 (55.2)
22 (88.0)
a Mean (standard deviation); b Median (interquartile range); SLE: systemic lupus erythematosus; SS: Sjogren’s syndrome; MCTD: mixed connective tissue disease; AID: autoimmune disease. Data not available: Confirmed diagnosis date from 6 subjects from Group 1 and 10 subjects from Group 2 are not available
Declarations
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to the Ministry of Health for their support and approval. Thanks to the Microbiology Unit, Pathology Department Hospital Putrajaya and Hospital Tuanku Fauziah for sample collections. Special thanks to Mrs. Sangitha, Mr Faizal, and Mrs Atifah from Hospital Putrajaya and Madam Nor Suhaila from Hospital Tuanku Fauziah for their assistance throughout the project.
Author contributions
NESZ: Investigation, Methodology, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. AAZ: Investigation, Methodology, Data curation, Formal analysis, Resources. BB, CLT, and NAZ: Project administration, Resources. EM: Data curation, Formal analysis.
Conflicts of interest
All authors declared no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
All experimental protocols were approved by the Medical Research and Ethics Committee (MREC), Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia (MREC approval number: (6) KKM/NIHSEC/P17-1363) and Human Research and Ethics Committee (JEPEM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM/JEPEM/17110570).
Consent to participate
Informed consent to participate in the study was obtained from all participants.
Consent to publication
Consent for publication has been obtained together with ethical approval of the study from MOH (MREC No: (6) KKM/NIHSEC/P17-1363) and USM JEPEM (USM/JEPEM/17110570).
Availability of data and materials
Data concerning the participants are not publicly available due to ethical restrictions. Requests for accessing the datasets should be directed to [Nor Effa S. Zulkafli, effa@usm.my].
Funding
This study was funded by the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia [FRGS/1/2019/SKK08/USM/03/14]. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Open Exploration maintains a neutral stance on jurisdictional claims in published institutional affiliations and maps. All opinions expressed in this article are the personal views of the author(s) and do not represent the stance of the editorial team or the publisher.
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