Demographics and clinical characteristics of the study patients who attended at both end points
| Characteristics | Baseline(n = 54) | Follow-up(n = 34) | p Value (Wilcoxon signed-rank test) |
| Age (years), mean (range) | 30.6 (16–48) | ||
| Male sex (%) | 62 | ||
| Disease duration (weeks), median (range) | 24 (2–260) | ||
| Early morning stiffness (min), median (IQR) (range 0–120) | 60 (2–180) | 30 (0–120) | 0.001 |
| Patients receiving NSAIDs (%) | 82 | 56 | |
| Patients receiving DMARDs (%) | 0.0 | 17.6 | |
| VAS back pain during day (mm), median (IQR) (range 0–100) | 50 (34–70) | 18 (5–61) | 0.004 |
| VAS back pain during night (mm), median (IQR) (range 0–100) | 57 (20–77) | 20 (6–66) | 0.012 |
| BASFI, median (IQR) (range 0–10) | 3.98 (2.43–6.35) | 1.45 (0.00–3.40) | 0.008 |
| BASDAI, median (IQR) (range 0–10) | 5.65 (3.28–7.53) | 3.05 (0.82–5.23) | 0.009 |
| ASQoL, median (IQR) (range 0–18) | 9 (6–12) | 5 (0–10) | 0.001 |
| HLA-B27 positive (%) | 54 | 55.8 | |
| C-reactive protein (mg/l), median (range) | 8 (<5–65) | 6 (<5–42) | 0.003 |
| Peripheral synovitis (%) | 23 | 2.9 | |
| History of IBD (%) | 0 | ||
| History of psoriasis (%) | 12.5 | ||
| History of alternate buttock pain (%) | 61 | ||
| Enthesopathy (%) | 48 | ||
| Positive family history (%) | 29 | ||
| ESSG diagnosis (number of patients) | |||
| Psoriatic spondylitis | 3 | 1 | |
| Reactive arthritis | 6 | 2 | |
| Ankylosing spondylitis | 0 | 8 | |
| Undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy | 41 | 20 | |
| Other | 4 | 3 |
ASQoL, ankylosing spondylitis quality of life; BASDAI, Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index; BASFI, Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index; DMARDs, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs; ESSG, European Spondyloarthropathy Study Group; IBD, inflammatory bowel disease; IQR, interquartile range; NSAIDs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; VAS, visual analogue scale.