Investigation of the relationship between body composition and fibromyalgia in chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases

Aim: This study aims to examine the relationship between body composition and fibromyalgia in chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases in detail. Materials and Methods: Ethical approval was obtained from the Health Sciences Ethics Committee of Manisa Celal Bayar University Faculty of Medicine with the decision number 20.478.486/2301 prior to initiating the study on 13.03.2024. The study was designed as a prospective, descriptive study. Results: A total of 200 patients were included in the study, of whom 79 (39%) were male and 121 (61%) were female. The mean age of the patients was 48.81 ± 12.27 years. Regarding the diagnosis distribution, 31.5% of the patients were diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), 42% with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and 26.5% with psoriatic arthritis (PSA). Fibromyalgia was identified in 49% of the patients. Significant differences were observed between patients with and without fibromyalgia in terms of age (p=0.001), disease onset age (p=0.001), ESR (p=0.001), FIQ (p=0.001), height (p=0.001), BMI (p=0.004), muscle mass (p=0.003), muscle percentage (p=0.001), total body fluid (p=0.006), total body fluid percentage (p=0.001), fat mass (p=0.001), fat percentage (p=0.001), lean mass (p=0.004), mineral level (p=0.001), visceral fat percentage (p=0.003), metabolic age (p=0.001), SLZ use (p=0.032), LEF use (p=0.013), and gender (p=0.001). A low positive correlation was observed between BASDAI and FIQ scores (r = 0.266, p = 0.035). DAS28 score showed positive correlations with ESR (r = 0.352, p = 0.001), CRP (r = 0.215, p = 0.049), and fat percentage (r = 0.240, p = 0.028). In the analysis related to PASI scores, significant correlations were found with several parameters: ESR (r = 0.278, p = 0.044), height (r = -0.392, p = 0.004), lean mass (r = -0.397, p = 0.003), mineral level (r = -0.320, p = 0.020), muscle mass (r = -0.396, p = 0.003), and total body fluid (r = -0.366, p = 0.007). Conclusion: Our study revealed significant differences in body composition, inflammation markers, gender distribution, and disease activity scores in patients with fibromyalgia. Keywords: Inflammatory diseases, Fibromyalgia, Body composition, rheumatoid arthritis , ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis