About the Authors

Ayano Mori

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – original draft

Affiliation The Shinko Institute for Medical Research, Shinko Hospital, Kobe, Japan

Toshiharu Saito

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Visualization

Affiliation The Shinko Institute for Medical Research, Shinko Hospital, Kobe, Japan

Miho Takahashi

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology

Affiliation The Shinko Institute for Medical Research, Shinko Hospital, Kobe, Japan

Miho Shibata

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology

Affiliation The Shinko Institute for Medical Research, Shinko Hospital, Kobe, Japan

Goh Tsuji

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Project administration, Supervision

Affiliation The Center for Rheumatic Disease, Shinko Hospital, Kobe, Japan

Saori Hatachi

Roles Data curation, Project administration, Supervision, Visualization

Affiliation The Center for Rheumatic Disease, Shinko Hospital, Kobe, Japan

Soshi Takahashi

Roles Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations The Shinko Institute for Medical Research, Shinko Hospital, Kobe, Japan, The Center for Rheumatic Disease, Shinko Hospital, Kobe, Japan

Shunichi Kumagai

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

kumagais@kobe-u.ac.jp

Affiliations The Shinko Institute for Medical Research, Shinko Hospital, Kobe, Japan, The Center for Rheumatic Disease, Shinko Hospital, Kobe, Japan

Competing Interests

I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: SK received research grant from Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma, and Asahikasei Pharma. SK received consigned research fund for developing new test kits from Bio-Rad Laboratories Co. Japan and Sekisui Medical Co. SK has been a consultant of SYSMEX CORPORATION. These do not alter the authors’ adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The authors except SK have declared no conflicts of interests for this study.