Romatoid Artrit Tedavisinde Akuaterapinin Etkinliği

Objective: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic destructive inflammatory disorder. This study is aimed to investigate the effects of\udbalneotherapy and aquatherapy in the treatment of RA patients.\udMaterials and Methods: A total of 59 patients who fulfilled the American College of Rheumatology diagnostic criteria for RA were included\udthis study. Patients were randomly assigned into three groups. Group 1 (n=20) received balneotherapy, group 2 (n=20) received an aquatic\udexercise program and group 3 (n=19) was accepted as control group. These programs were applied five times a week, over three weeks\ud(15 sessions). Patients were evaluated for clinical and laboratory parameters. Clinical parameters included pain,duration of morning stiffness,\udnumber of swollen and tender joints, disease activity score (DAS28), Modified health assessment questionnaire (mHAQ), physician’s and\udpatient’s global assessment and hand grip strength. Laboratory evaluation included erythrocyte sedimentation rate(ESR) and C-reactive\udprotein (CRP). The assessment parameters were measured before, at the end of and after 3 months of the therapy.\udResults: The mean age of the patients was 54±10.7 (25-75) years and the mean disease duration was 122.3±98.1 (1-424) months. In aquatic\udexercise group we observed an improvement in DAS28 scores (p<0.001), in the number of tender joints (p<0.005), in VAS scores (p<0.005),\udmHAQ (p<0.05), physician’s and patient’s global assessments (p<0.05). Also there was a statistically significant decrease in ESR results in\udaquatherapy group compared to other groups (p<0.05). However no statistically significant difference was obtained between three groups\ud(p>0.05).\udConclusion: This study shows that aquatic exercise program is beneficial in the management of DAS28, pain, HAQ parameters and should\udbe taken in to consideration in planning exercise therapy for RA patients. (Turkish Journal of Osteoporosis 2014;20: 10-5