suMMary Study conducted at the Inflammatory

BACKGROUND: Physical activity in daily life and exercise capacity have not been assessed in patients with Crohn’s disease to date. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the physical activity in daily life, exercise capacity, quality of life, and prevalence of mood disorders in patients with moderate-to-severe Crohn’s disease on infliximab-induced remission and the possible associations among variables. METHODS: A cross-sectional preliminary study was conducted. Twenty-six patients with Crohn’s disease and 20 controls were selected. Participants underwent evaluation of physical activity in daily life (triaxial accelerometer), exercise capacity (shuttle walk test), handgrip strength, quality of life, and presence of mood disorders. RESULTS: The number of steps taken (7446±3081 vs 7898±2487), active time (80.6±42 vs 89.7±24.3min), shuttle walk test distance [665 (405) vs 710 (409) m] and handgrip strength [31 (15) vs 29 (20) kgf did not show any difference between the patients with Crohn’s disease and the controls. The time spent lying down [95.8 (68.8) vs 60.9 (74.7) min] was greater and some domains of the quality of life were superior in the patients with Crohn’s disease. No correlation was observed between the physical activity in daily life and quality of life or presence of mood disorders in patients with Crohn’s disease. CONCLUSION: Patients with Crohn’s disease on infliximab-induced remission, despite to more time spent lying down, they have the same level of physical activity in daily life and exercise capacity min compared with the controls.

Introduction: Crohn’s disease (CD) is an inflammatory bowel disease, marked by exacerbations and remissions periods. Peripheral manifestations in CD may be present with the syndrome of skeletal muscle dysfunction (SMD), which is characterized by loss of muscle strength, fatigue complain, limited exercise capacity and impaired quality of life of these patients. Objective: Evaluate muscle strength, physical capacity and quality of life of patients with CD and compare them with healthy controls. Methods: 18 patients CD and 12 healthy controls matched for age and sex were involved. Peripheral muscle strength evaluated by handgrip strength of the dominant hand and respiratory muscle strength by measures of respiratory muscle strength (maximal inspiratory/expiratory pressure - MIP and MEP). Exercise capacity evaluated by Shuttle test (ST) and the quality of life by the Short-form 36 (SF-36) and by the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ). Results: Patients with CD presented a lower respiratory muscle strength (MIP = -68.93 ± 26.61 vs 29.63 ± -100 cmH2O, p = 0.0013 and MEP = 81.07 ± 30.26 vs 108 ± 25.30 cmH2O, p = 0.032) and a tendency the lower peripheral muscle strength (31.72 ± 8.55 vs 39.00 ± 13.37 kgf, p = 0.09). In addition, CD patients presented worse physical capacity on the ST compared to the control group (513.7 ± 237m vs 983.0 ± 263m, p < 0.05) and worse quality of life in 7 of 8 domains of the SF-36 and in all dimensions of the IBDQ. Conclusion: Patients with CD showed muscle functional impairment and poorer quality of life compared to healthy control group. These findings suggest that the assessment and maybe interventions in the muscle function must be used in clinical practice.