in and Other

To investigate the relationships between several health outcomes in ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Baseline pretreatment data from 214 patients with AS participating in the AS Study for the Evaluation of Recombinant Infliximab Therapy were analysed. Measures of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and physical function were used as dependent variables in linear regression analysis. Associations between HRQoL (36-Item Short Form (SF-36)), physical function, clinical disease activity, spinal mobility, structural damage, MRI inflammation, disease duration, age, gender, body mass index and HLA-B27 were explored. Univariate associations were retested in multivariate models. The robustness of the models was evaluated by sensitivity analyses. the van der Waerden technique before being entered into the linear regression analysis. All tests were two-sided and p values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. Analyses were performed using SPSS Version 16.