A 120-kilometer walk on the Via Degli Dei, the path that crosses the Apennines joining Bologna and Florence. Along this road is developed “Passi di Saute”, an awareness project on spondyloarthritis promoted by Novartis, with the patronage of the main associations of patients with rheumatological diseases, to focus more attention on the pathology in order to reduce the time to diagnosis and limit the serious consequences that months or years of delays can cause.
A pathology with symptoms that can be misleading and confused, for example, with a banal back pain; a series of tests, evaluations and treatments not aimed at the problem before the diagnosis and the start of the correct therapeutic path. Lost precious time; a constant in the stories of those suffering from spondyloarthritis with a notable impact on the quality of life.
The protagonist of the Passi di Salute project is Giorgio Circosta, a person with ankylosing spondylitis, a particular form of spondyloarthritis, who will travel a distance of over 120 km to bring attention to the pathology and demonstrate how a correct therapeutic diagnostic path can lead not only to a improvement of the quality of life but also allowing to carry out great enterprises such as that of facing long walks with the backpack on the shoulders and having access to wonderful places guarded in the heart of our country. The walk will take place along the “Via Degli Dei”, an ancient military road that connects Bologna to Florence and which takes its name from a series of mountains that characterize it: Monte Adone, Monte Venere and Monte Luario (the goddess of the Moon) .
But it will also be a metaphorical journey through all the “steps” that a person with spondyloarthritis takes to manage the disease and achieve an adequate level of quality of life. A departure that can prove difficult and painful in perceiving and recognizing the first symptoms, sometimes underestimated and confused with other states, to proceed with specialist visits of various kinds and then arrive at a correct diagnosis and adequate therapy. A long journey that often lasts for years and which risks affecting the body and mind if not approached with the correct timing and in the most appropriate way. In short, just like a real journey on the trails.
“The term spondyloarthritis refers to a group of chronic inflammatory rheumatological diseases that mainly involve the spine, but can also extend to peripheral joints of the upper and lower limbs. One of the most important and distinctive symptoms of onset spondyloarthritis is sore inflammatory back with possible involvement of the sacroiliac joints. Patients complain of pain, stiffness, fatigue and a progressive loss of spinal mobility. If not diagnosed and treated in time, the disease can lead to progressive reduction of spinal mobility and severe disability ”Said Roberto Caporali, director of the rheumatology and medical sciences department of Asst Gaetano Pini-Cto in Milan.
About 1 in 20 people with chronic back pain suffer from axial spondyloarthritis. These may go undiagnosed or minimize the underlying cause of the pain, but there are 2 types of back pain: mechanical and inflammatory. For back pain patients, it is important to distinguish the etiology of inflammatory pain from that of mechanical pain.
An axial spondyloarthritis is suspected of being inflammatory back pain that often appears before the age of 40, persists or more months, and especially is accompanied by morning stiffness and pain that improves with movement or exercise. Symptoms worsen with rest, especially intensifying in the morning or at night.
“Back pain is still too often mistakenly confused with age-related pain, when instead in its inflammatory form it mainly affects young people (more often males) in the midst of working life. In fact, among the problems of patients suffering from of inflammatory back certainly the difficulty of arriving at a diagnosis represents one of the major obstacles and, often, this comes after the disease has already caused irreparable damage. Before reaching the reference rheumatologist, the patient slows down his path to diagnosis looking for solutions alternatives to symptom management. To educate on the correct interpretation of symptoms, on the value of the rheumatologist and increase the awareness of other professionals and specialists (eg physiotherapists, orthopedists, neurosurgeons, Mmg but also personal trainers or other people to whom those who have of back can apply) represent key elements in reaching a diagnosis precocious “, said Carlo Selmi, head of the rheumatology and clinical immunology unit at Humanitas, full professor of internal medicine, Humanitas University of Milan.
It is also important to remember how adequate physical activity can support the success of a drug therapy, in terms of both the management of the disease and the patient’s quality of life, as well as preserving the elasticity of the spine.
Passi di Salute is an initiative that aims to raise awareness of inflammatory back pain and reduce the time needed to diagnose axial spondyloarthritis, promoting correct management and early patient care, and is sponsored by the main patient associations. And gender.
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