JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a subtype of inflammatory rheumatic disease, affecting predominantly axial skeleton and sacro-iliac joints. The main clinical manifestations are spinal stiffness and inflammatory back pain, that can potentially affect gait ability of patients with AS. At this point, however, published studies show discrepancies regarding gait characteristics in AS and heterogeneity in terms of task requirement, types of equipment, data collection and analysis techniques used to assess gait ability of patients with AS.

Objective:

The review questions are twofold: (1) what are the consequences of AS on gait? and (2) how gait in patients with AS is being assessed?

Methods:

Three electronic databases were search systematically to identify studies satisfying the search criteria: PubMed, Pedro and Cochrane, with no limit to publication date. The research focused on original research, using Boolean operator "AND" and "OR" in the combination of the MESH descriptors, found in titles and/or abstracts: (Gait OR Walk OR Walking OR locomotor OR locomotion) AND (ankylosing spondylitis OR spondyloarthritis). English, original articles only were included.

Results:

To date, search strategy has been completed and 168 records were obtained. After screening titles and abstracts, 19 full-texts were reviewed. Of those, 17 were included in the review. We are currently in the process of data extraction and synthesis.

Conclusions:

The systematic review will provide a synthesis and a comprehensive evaluation of published studies on gait characteristics in patients with AS. Furthermore, this work is also intended to help to identify the likely relevant directions for future research. Clinical Trial: PROSPERO: CRD42018102540 (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=102540)