Spondyloarthritis & psoriatic arthritis
Segmental spinal damage predicts mobility restriction and functional decline in radiographic axial spondyloarthritis: a longitudinal study
Authors' conclusion
Longitudinal DVU-level modelling translates radiographic spinal damage into anatomically resolved, clinically interpretable losses in mobility and function, extending beyond global damage scores in r-axSpA.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with radiographic axial SpA (r-axSpA)1,263 paired clinical-radiographic assessments
- Participants
- 477 patients
- Exposure
- Radiographic spinal damage and spinal mobility and physical function
- Outcome
- Longitudinal association between radiographic spinal damage and spinal mobility and physical function
Methodological detailsDisco-vertebral unit (DVU)-level analyses, linear mixed-effects models with patient-level random intercepts
- DVU-level analyses
- Linear mixed-effects models with patient-level random intercepts
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- Cervical rotation reduction per one-point increase in cervical damage
- 1.27°
- Lumbar lateral flexion reduction per point increase in lumbar damage
- 0.29-cm
- Schober's test reduction per point increase in lumbar damage
- 0.06-cm
- Bridging at C2-C3 vs no damage at same level: lower cervical rotation (adjusted; P < 0.0001)
- 35.5°
- Bridging at L3-L4 vs no damage at same level: lower lumbar lateral flexion (adjusted; P < 0.0001)
- 7.3 cm
- Standardized β, higher damage and cervical rotation
- −0.53
- Standardized β, higher damage and lumbar lateral flexion
- −0.40
- Standardized β, higher damage and BASFI (worse)
- 0.31
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Original publication
Segmental spinal damage predicts mobility restriction and functional decline in radiographic axial spondyloarthritis: a longitudinal study. Rheumatology (Oxford). Published 15 March 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →