Rapid pain reduction by the use of local wIRA therapy (hydrosun®-750 irradiator) in the treatment of axial spondyloarthritis - a Randomized Clinical Trial
Patients with active disease undergoing a 7-day multimodal rheumatologic complex treatment under non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) therapy were randomised. The interventional group (IG) received additional serial local wIRA treatment of the back (2 treatments for 30 min per day for 6 days). 36 patients of the IG and 35 patients of the control group (CG) completed the trial.
Multimodal rheumatologic complex treatment including wIRA application (IG) or not (CG) resulted both in a significant reduction in disease activity and functional indexes.
However, TNF-α levels were significantly decreased only in the wIRA-IG with a significant difference to the CG. Due to a rapid reduction in pain, 26 (76%) patients in the wIRA-IC reduced or even stopped their NSAID drug therapy after trial completion, compared to only 1 patient of the CG. A reason for these desirable effects of wIRA therapy could be the described change in TNF-α levels.
The publication of Klemm P, Eichelmann M, Aykara I, Hudowenz O, Dischereit G, Lange U is open access available at
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02656736.2020.1804079