Innate/inflammatory bioregulation and clinical effectiveness of whole-body hyperthermia (balneotherapy) in elderly patients with osteoarthritis

Figures & data

Figure 1. Flowchart of patients through the study.

Table 1. Anthropometric and demographic data.

	Pre-treatment (n = 36)	Post-treatment (n = 36)
Sex (women/men)	23/13	–
Age (years)	70.71 (±1.05)	–
Weight (kg)	75.22 (±2.25)	75.75 (±2.23)
BMI (kg/m^2)	28.15 (±0.89)	28.35 (±0.88)
WHR	0.90 (±0.01)	0.90 (±0.01)
Employment status
Blue collar	n = 12 (33.33%)	–
White collar	n = 5 (13.88%)	–
Unemployed	n = 19 (52.77%)	–

Data are expressed as mean (± SEM)

BMI: body mass index; WHR: waist-hip ratio.

Table 2. Clinical measurements and serum concentration of inflammatory cytokines IL-8 and TGF-β in patients with OA before (pretreatment) and after (posttreatment) mud therapy intervention.

	Pretreatment	Posttreatment
Knee flexion angle (º)	104.22 (±2.40)	115.38 (±2.71)***
Knee extension angle (º)	171.72 (±1.74)	176.11 (±1.27)**
VAS	5.93 (±0.39)	3.48 (±0.58)***
WOMAC	39.08 (±2.63)	25.51 (±2.81)***
EQ-5D	7.64 (±0.26)	6.58 (±0.29)***
IL-8 (pg/mL)	409.37 (±81.44)	120.66 (±18.05)***
TGF-β (pg/mL)	93 746.9 (±10 835.9)	78 288.9 (±8036.67)**
Inflammatory index (IL-8/TGF-β) (×10^-3)	4.3 (±0.6)	2.1 (±0.3)***

Data are expressed as mean (±SEM)

VAS: visual analog scale; WOMAC: Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index; EQ-5D: EuroQol-5D.

** p < .01

*** p < .001 with respect to basal values.

Figure 2. Correlation between serum inflammatory cytokine concentrations and clinical outcomes in patients with OA after the cycle of mud therapy: IL-8 and perceived pain (A) and TGF-β and knee flexion angle (°) (B). VAS: visual analog scale.

Figure 3. Percentage of CD4⁺ CD25⁺ FOXP3⁺ Treg cells (A) and CD8⁺ CD28^– Treg cells (B) in patients with OA before (pre-treatment) and after (post-treatment) the cycle of mud therapy. Columns represent the mean ± SEM of independent assays performed in duplicate for each participant. **p < .01, ***p < .001 with respect to basal values.

Figure 4. Functional capacity of circulating neutrophils in patients with OA before (pretreatment) and after (posttreatment) the cycle of mud therapy: percentage of ‘phagocytic neutrophils’ (A) and phagocytic activity of circulating neutrophils (B). Columns represent the mean ± SEM of independent assays performed in duplicate for each participant. **p < .01; ***p < .001 with respect to basal values.