Comparison of Deep Tissue Massage and Therapeutic Massage for Lower Back Pain, Disease Activity, and Functional Capacity of Ankylosing Spondylitis Patients: A Randomized Clinical Pilot Study

Table 2

Baseline characteristics of the 27 patients with ankylosing spondylitis.

	DTM group	TM group
Age (years)	49 (7.78)	45 (6.71)	0.351
ESR (mm/h)	26.1 (8.07)	27.3 (11.71)	0.758
CRP (mg/l)	27.0 (9.41)	28.9 (12.56)	0.418
BMI	27.9 (2.63)	31.4 (11.64)	0.394
BASDAI [NRS]	6.9 (1.45)	6.7 (0.89)	0.763
BASFI [NRS]	6.2 (1.23)	5.7 (1.56)	0.274
CE [cm]	1.6 (0.49)	1.3 (0.81)	0.188
MS [cm]	1.5 (0.83)	1.7 (1.44)	0.380
FTF [cm]	20.56 (9.96)	19.23 (7.39)	0.460
PAIN [VAS]	69.8 (12.51)	63.3 (10.49)	0.107
NSAID	12	11
DMARD synthetic	9	8
DMARD biologics	1	1

The results are expressed as mean (SD); BMI: body mass index.; BASDAI: Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index; BASFI: Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index; CE: chest expansion; MS: Modified Schober; FTF: Finger to Floor; PAIN: intensity of lower back pain; NRS: numerical rating scale; VAS: Visual Analog Scale; NSAID: nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; DMARDs: disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs; values for differences in the baseline data between the DTM and the TM groups.