Arterial Stiffness and Anti-Tumor Necrosis Factor-Alpha Therapy in Ankylosing Spondylitis: Results With Long-Term Two Year-Follow-Up
Murat KARKUCAK1, Erhan ÇAPKIN1, Abdulkadir KİRİŞ2, Mürsel ŞAHİN2, Ayşegül KÜÇÜKALİ TÜRKYILMAZ4, Adem KARACA1, Ferhat GÖKMEN1, Ahmet AYAR3
1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medical Faculty of Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Turkey
2Department of Cardiology, Medical Faculty of Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Turkey
3Department of Physiology, Medical Faculty of Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Turkey
4Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medical Faculty of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Rize, Turkey
Keywords: Ankylosing spondylitis, anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha, arterial stiffness, pulse wave velocity
Abstract
Objectives: This prospective clinical study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of long-term of anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a) therapy on arterial stiffness in ankylosing spondylitis.
Patients and methods: A total of 28 active ankylosing spondylitis patients (21 males, 7 females; mean age 33.5±9.5 years; range 20 to 52 years) were enrolled. Patients’ values for before the initiation of biological therapy and mid-term (24 weeks) evaluation were reported. For further evaluation, this initially reported patients were contacted two years after anti-TNF-α therapy, and their arterial stiffness was assessed by using pulse wave velocity.
Results: After two years of anti-TNF-α therapy, despite the significant improvements in patients’ symptoms and clinical activity parameters including Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index score (4.9±0.9, 1.9±0.5 and 1.8±0.9, p=0.0001), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (35.5±23.1 mm/h, 13.8±9.2 mm/h and 25.0±17.9 mm/h, p=0.0001), and C-reactive protein (2.1±1.6 ng/dl, 0.4±0.3 ng/dl and 0.6±0.9 ng/dl p=0.0001), no significant difference was observed in arterial stiffness parameters (7.9±1.3 meter/second, 7.7±1.3 meter/second and 8.3±1.1 meter/second, p=0.620).
Conclusion: In line with the previous 24-week evaluation, the results at two-year follow-up indicates that anti-TNF-α therapy does not improve arterial stiffness in patients with ankylosing spondylitis.
The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.
The authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.