Activity and Impairment in Smokers with AS
7/20/2005
Following up on our original April 9, 2004 report, "Smoking and AS", another study has shown that smoking is associated with "functional impairment in AS."
The study, "Evaluation of clinical activity and functional impairment in smokers with ankylosing spondylitis", was published in the July 2005 issue of the journal, "Rheumatology International." The study was done by researchers Uzunca Kaan and Ozdemir Ferda at the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department, Trakya School of Medicine in Turkey.
As we stated in our 2004 report, AS can cause decreased chest expansion because of long-term inflammation and scarring of the tissues in the joints between the ribs and spine, and where the ribs meet the breastbone in front of the chest. In the aforementioned study, researchers examined 48 patients, 24 of whom were smokers. They concluded that smoking added to "physical incapacity" in people with AS.
Potential cardiovascular side effects such as heart attack caused by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been the focus of a plethora of recent research. However, compared to smoking, NSAIDs are much less of a threat to cardiovascular health. As reported by Rheumawire, JointandBone.org's news service, the largest NSAID study to date was recently concluded and Dr. Gurkipal Singh, the lead author of the study, reported his findings at the European League Against Rheumatism's (EULAR) 2005 meeting.
He stated that the increased risk of heart attack from NSAIDs is 12%, "which is not very high." Dr. Singh went on to state that, "Smoking increases the risk of [heart attack] by about 200% or 300% and people are still allowed to buy cigarettes, but some patients are not allowed to use [NSAIDs], which can relieve pain." Source: Rheumawire, June 10, 2005.