Abstract
Objective: We investigated whether body mass index (BMI) is associated with parameters of disease activity and clinical manifestations in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA).
Methods: Demographic, clinical, and radiological features and disease activity indexes from 789 axSpA patients (619 males and 170 females) were obtained from the Korean College of Rheumatology BIOlogics (KOBIO) registry. BMI (kg/m2) was classified into normal (BMI <23.0), overweight (23.0 ≤ BMI <25.0), and obese (BMI ≥25.0). Disease activity indexes included Bath ankylosing spondylitis disease activity index (BASDAI), erythrocyte sediment rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), and ankylosing spondylitis disease activity score (ASDAS).
Results: The mean BMI in patients with axSpA was 23.3 ± 3.5. 50.2% of all patients were overweight or obese. Overweight/obese patients had more syndesmophyte and less peripheral arthritis than those in normal BMI patients (p < 0.001 and p < 0.030, respectively). BMI was not associated with disease activity indexes in axSpA patients. Patients with syndesmophyte had higher BMI than those without syndesmophyte (24.2 ± 3.6 vs. 22.9 ± 3.3, p < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that increased BMI was closely related with the presence of syndesmophyte (OR = 1.086, 95% CI 1.031–1.143, p = 0.002)
Conclusions: Our results imply that increased BMI is significantly associated with the presence of syndesmophyte, but not with disease activity in axSpA.
Acknowledgements
This work was not supported by any funds.
Conflict of interest
None.