Clinical Research Directory

Postural Biofeedback and Exercise in Axial Spondyloarthritis

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether adding a wearable postural biofeedback device to a standard exercise program affects disease activity, pain, and functional parameters in individuals with axial spondyloarthritis. The main questions it aims to answer are: Does adding postural biofeedback to a standard exercise program improve disease activity? Does adding postural biofeedback to a standard exercise program reduce pain? Does adding postural biofeedback improve functional parameters, including spinal mobility, quality of life, posture, and functional exercise capacity? Researchers will compare a standard exercise program with the same exercise program combined with a wearable postural biofeedback device to determine whether the addition of postural biofeedback provides greater benefits. Participants will: Participate in a physiotherapist-supervised standard exercise program twice a week for 8 weeks Use the wearable postural biofeedback device three days per week for at least 3 hours per day during prolonged static posture activities if assigned to the intervention group Complete assessments before and after the 8-week intervention, including measures of disease activity, pain, physical function, spinal mobility, quality of life, posture, and functional exercise capacity

Multicenter Validation of the 2025 Classification Criteria for Axial Spondyloarthritis

This study aims to validate the 2025 ASAS-SPARTAN revised classification criteria for axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) in the Chinese population through a multicenter, prospective, cross-sectional observational study. Axial spondyloarthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease primarily affecting the spine and sacroiliac joints, causing back pain and stiffness. Early and accurate diagnosis is essential for timely treatment and improved patient outcomes. The 2025 ASAS-SPARTAN revised classification criteria were recently developed by the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society (ASAS) and the SpondyloArthritis Research and Treatment Network (SPARTAN) to improve diagnostic accuracy and reduce over-diagnosis, with preset targets of sensitivity ≥75% and specificity ≥90%. However, the original validation study included only 71 Chinese patients out of 1,015 total participants, and racial differences in susceptibility genes, living environments, and socioeconomic-cultural backgrounds may affect the criteria's performance in Chinese patients. This study will enroll patients with chronic back pain (CBP) lasting ≥3 months and onset age ≤45 years from multiple hospitals in China. All participants will undergo comprehensive diagnostic assessments including clinical history, physical examination, CRP testing, HLA-B27 testing, pelvic X-ray, and sacroiliac joint MRI. The 2025 ASAS-SPARTAN criteria will be applied to evaluate diagnostic performance, and results will be compared with the 2009 ASAS classification criteria and clinicians' gold-standard diagnoses. The primary objective is to validate the sensitivity, specificity, and internal scoring rationality of the 2025 ASAS-SPARTAN criteria in Chinese axSpA patients. The secondary objective is to assess the concordance between the 2025 and 2009 ASAS criteria and analyze reasons for any discrepancies. The findings will provide evidence for Chinese clinicians to select appropriate classification tools, reduce over-diagnosis of axSpA, and alleviate the burden on the healthcare system.

EAST-1 (ERAP-inhibition in Axial Spondyloarthritis Trial - 1)

GRWD0715 is an orally administered, selective inhibitor of the Endoplasmic Reticulum Aminopeptidase 1 \[ERAP1\] enzyme being explored as a potential new treatment for axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), a long term condition caused by inflammation predominantly affecting the sacroiliac joints (SIJs) and spine.

The REFLECT Study- Flares in axSpA

Axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) is a long-term inflammatory condition that affects the spine and sacroiliac joints. People living with axSpA often experience periods when their symptoms suddenly worsen, known as disease "flares." These flares can be painful, unpredictable, and significantly affect daily life, work and psychological wellbeing. Their unpredictable nature can leave people feeling helpless and anxious about when symptoms will return. Research has shown that severe or frequent flares are linked to worse long-term outcomes in axSpA. However, it is difficult for researchers and clinicians to clearly define what a flare is, or to predict when one will happen. There is an unmet, urgent need to improve our understanding and recognition of flares, to enable earlier and more effective intervention, and improve long-term outcomes. This study will explore people's experiences of flares, through a real-time digital flare and symptom diary. Data will be captured digitally from people living with axSpA over 12 months, including symptoms, diet, and lifestyle, self-management strategies and impact of flare on life, work, psychological wellbeing and relationships. Participants will attend clinic at two time points only (once when in flare, once when not in flare), to collect blood (serum) samples for investigation of inflammatory markers. Findings will enable us to define and "map" different flare experiences of people living with axSpA and identify windows of opportunity for intervention and effective management. The results will inform the development of a novel, patient-initiated digital pathway for flare identification and management, which will be discussed and refined in a series of workshops with patients and healthcare professionals. This project will take place in two UK NHS hospitals (specialist rheumatology care settings): The Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Bath and King's College Hospital, London. We anticipate future work to pilot test the pathway and inform potential wider NHS implementation

REDO-JAK: Dose Reduction of Janus Kinase Inhibitors in Patients With Inflammatory Rheumatic Diseases

The goal of this clinical trial is to assess the effectiveness of a disease activity guided dose reduction strategy of Janus kinase inhibitor (JAKi) compared to disease activity guided JAKi continuation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) who are in a state of low disease activity or remission while on JAKi. The main question it aims to answer is: Is a disease activity guided dose reduction strategy for JAKi not inferior in terms of efficacy compared to disease activity guided JAKi continuation in patients with RA/PsA/axSpA that are currently in a low disease activity/remission state? Researchers will compare a disease activity guided dose reduction strategy for JAKi to disease activity guided JAKi continuation in patients with RA/PsA/axSpA that are currently in a low disease activity/remission state to see if a disease activity guided dose reduction strategy for JAKi is not inferior in terms of efficacy compared to disease activity guided JAKi continuation. Participants will: * Follow a JAKi dose reduction strategy or will continue using JAKi in the same dose * Study (telemonitoring) visits are planned every 3 months * At every visit, patients are asked to complete patient-reported outcomes that assess daily functioning, health-related quality of life, pain, fatigue, productivity loss, medical consumption and medication adherence.

A LONGITUDINAL OBSERVATIONAL STUDY to EVALUATE the EFFICACY of MOVEMENT and IMPLEMENT CONCRETE MOVEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS with the HELP of MOBILITY TRACKING with SMARTWATCHES in SUBJECTS with AXIAL SPONDYLOARTHRITIS

Axial spondyloarthritis (axSpa) is a chronic inflammatoric autoimmune disease of the back with a prevalence around 1,4% (1) . In patients decreased function and decreased quality of life as well as chronic pain are strong burdens . Despite modern treatments like biological agents just 25% of the patients are at remission (2) . Besides the pharmacological treatment physical activity is known to be very important to gain disease control. A low physical activity is related to a higher disease activity and a high physical activity to better disease control. Until now there is no structured capture of the daily movements of patients with axial spondylarthritis in clinical practice. Our goal is to analyse the relationship between movement and disease activity and to implement concrete recommendations for movement in patients with axSpa. The primary objective of the study is to investigate which type, frequency and intensity of movement are helpful in gaining and remaining disease control in patients with axSpa. Methods This monocentric longitudinal study recordes movement, sport and physical parameters like heart frequency and heart rate variability through an observational period of 6 month via smartwatch. Meanwhile we record disease activity, pain and functional outcomes with regular surveys every two weeks. Patients in every phase of disease are eligible for inclusion, but they do must have an own iPhone due to software reasons. Data is collected in a specially programmed study-app. Fifty participants will be included in this study. Until now we have 24 patients included since april 2024. Patients come to clinic every 3 month as this is our standard in outclinic patients. We than do anamnesis and a physical examination. After the study period of 6 month we transmit the mobility and disease-related data of the surveys of the patients mobile device to our system. The primary endpoint is to find exact recommendations for concrete movement in patients with axSpa. So this is the first study that wants to give concrete recommendations for movement in patients with axSpa with the help of mobility tracking with smartwatches. This could help to prevent flares and also to recover quicker from a flare. 1. López-Medina und Moltó, "Update on the epidemiology, risk factors, and disease outcomes of axial spondyloarthritis". 2. Pina Vegas u. a., "Factors associated with remission at 5-year follow-up in recent-onset axial spondyloarthritis: results from the DESIR cohort".