Whole-Body Cryotherapy Decreases the Levels of Inflammatory, Oxidative Stress, and Atherosclerosis Plaque Markers in Male Patients with Active-Phase Ankylosing Spondylitis in the Absence of Classical Cardiovascular Risk Factors

Table 2

Levels of inflammatory parameters as well as the value of BASDAI and BASFI (mean value ± standard deviation (SD)) in AS patients before and after the completion of a cycle of ten whole-body cryotherapy procedures with subsequent kinesiotherapy (WBC group) or a cycle of ten kinesiotherapy procedures only (KT group), with statistical analyses. (p): plasma; (s): serum; Δ: difference prior to post treatment.

Parameters		WBC group	KT group
hsCRP (s) (mg/l)	Before	13.5 ± 16.3	13.9 ± 15.2	0.942
	After	9.2 ± 15.3	13.6 ± 16.2	0.438
		0.002	0.623
	Δ	−4.24 ± 5.68	−0.27 ± 3.25	0.023
CER (s) (mg/dl)	Before	62.83 ± 12.61	67.57 ± 12.60	0.296
	After	51.32 ± 10.74	53.51 ± 14.26	0.628
		0.006	0.003
	Δ	−11.51 ± 16.6	−14.06 ± 14.47	0.646
IL-6 (p) (pg/ml)	Before	41.6 ± 8.86	41.8 ± 10.5	0.957
	After	36.6 ± 7.89	41.0 ± 10.4	0.191
		0.121	0.301	0.216
	Δ	−4.94 ± 11.9	−0.74 ± 5.71
sICAM-1 (p) (ng/ml)	Before	79.0 ± 15.5	84.3 ± 21.9	0.432
	After	69.2 ± 14.2	83.9 ± 20.0	0.023
		0.088	0.642
	Δ	−9.84 ± 23.0	−0.41 ± 16.1	0.191
BASDAI	Before	5.43 ± 1.61	5.28 ± 1.71	0.720
	After	3.29 ± 0.91	4.53 ± 1.62	<0.05
		<0.001	<0.001
	Δ	−2.14 ± 1.23	−0.74 ± 0.38	0.001
BASFI	Before	5.20 ± 2.29	5.01 ± 2.06	1.00
	After	3.81 ± 2.20	4.35 ± 2.23	0.497
		<0.001	<0.001
	Δ	−1.39 ± 1.03	−0.66 ± 0.39	<0.01

: statistical significance of differences between both groups of patients; : statistical significance of differences between values before and after treatment in particular groups of patients.