Associations between walking time, quadriceps muscle strength and cardiovascular capacity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine whether there are any associations between walking time, quadriceps muscle strength and cardiovascular capacity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Thirty-one patients with RA and 26 patients with AS belonging to Steinbrocker's functional class I-II were examined. Cardiovascular capacity was calculated from the expired air during a bicycle test and quadriceps muscle strength by the peak torque from an isokinetic dynamometer test. Walking time was the time it took to walk a distance of 160 m on a flat floor and to climb up and down a staircase. In patients with RA, flat floor walking and stair climbing times correlated inversely with quadriceps muscle strength and cardiovascular capacity. Similar results were seen in patients with AS, although the association between cardiovascular capacity and stair-climbing time was not statistically significant. Multiple regression analysis was performed for all patients with quadriceps muscle strength and cardiovascular capacity applied as independent variables in two separate models. Cardiovascular capacity explained 32% and quadriceps muscle strength 21% of the variance in flat floor walking time. Quadriceps muscle strength, together with diagnosis and age, explained 38% of the variance in stair-climbing time, and cardiovascular capacity together with age and pain explained 36% of the variance. In conclusion, in spite of cardiovascular capacity and quadriceps muscle strength being associated with walking times, the findings suggest that they play only a modest role in explaining rapid walking on flat floor and in stairs.

Decreased health-related physical fitness in adults with ankylosing spondylitis: a cross-sectional controlled study

“…This study also found muscular endurance to be significantly decreased in the knee extensor and flexor groups. This has implications for performance of activities requiring repeated or prolonged lower-limb strength; walking speed has previously been found to be associated with quadriceps muscle strength [49]. Both muscular strength and endurance were significantly associated with participant reported physical function.…”

Principles of Rehabilitation and Reactivation: Interstitial Lung Disease, Sarcoidosis and Rheumatoid Disease with Respiratory Involvement

“…Quadriceps force is reduced in the fibrotic idiopathic interstitial pneumonias (IPF and non-specific interstitial pneumonia) [25], sarcoidosis [26,27] and rheumatoid arthritis [28], with average values that are 20-35% lower than healthy controls. Lower quadriceps force is consistently associated with reduced peak exercise capacity [26,29] and reduced functional exercise capacity [25,26,27,30,31], regardless of the underlying type of ILD. In some ILDs, peripheral muscle function appears to worsen as the disease progresses [27,32].…”

Association of Knee Muscle Strength with Lower Extremity Dysfunction in Patients with Osteoarthritis: a Comparison with Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients and Healthy Controls

“…In contrast, other studies have detected no relationship between isokinetic muscle strength and pain intensity in RA patients. [24,35] In the current trial, no relationship was found between the PT ratios of the knee muscles and the VAS pain scores in the OA and RA patients. Since these patients did not have reduced muscle strength compared with the controls, it might not be possible to detect the relationship between muscle strength and pain severity from our findings.…”

“…In a study by Stucki et al, [36] a significant negative correlation was shown between disease activity and isometric muscle strength, whereas Mengshoel et al [35] reported no correlation. Our study determined that there was no correlation between disease activity and isokinetic muscle strength in patients with lower limb RA.…”