© 1989 British Society for Rheumatology
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SENSITIVITY OF ANTHROPOMETRIC TECHNIQUES FOR CLINICAL TRIALS IN ANKYLOSING SPONDYLITIS
The Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Bath, England; Departments of Medicine and Rheumatology/Immunology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Robert B. Brigham Multipurpose Arthritis Center; Department of Biostatisncs, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Correspondence to:
Address reprint requests to Dr. A. K. Clarke, Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Upper Borough Walls, Bath BA1 1RL
To determine whether anthropometric techniques widely used for assessment of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) would be useful outcome measures in long-term clinical trials, 52 AS patients at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases were studied. All patients had well documented AS with a mean age of 38.1 years, and had been diagnosed for an average of 7.6 years. Measurements were taken before (B) and after (A) 3-week intensive inpatient physical therapy (PT). Short-term therapeutic effects (over 3 weeks) were significant (adjusted p<0.000l) for all five measures tested (chest expansion, finger-to-floor distance, height, lumbar flexion, and cervical rotation). Height (adjusted p<0.0001), finger-to-floor distance (adjusted p=0.047) and cervical rotation (adjusted p=0.0l2) diminished over the course of follow-up. Therefore, 3 weeks of hospitalization with intensive physical therapy produces measurable short-term change; minute but measurable change with treatment occurs even in long-standing AS; and detectable changes in physical measurements occur over a 5-year period even in long-standing AS. Anthropometric measurements are useful outcome variables for long-term clinical trials in AS, but the potential for improvement in clinical measurements in long-standing AS is predictably small.
KEY WORDS: Measurement, Spine, Physiotherapy, Spondarthropathy, Outcome
*Current address, Medical College of Virginia. Richmond, VA, USA.
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