With our research, we aim to learn from patients in daily clinical practice. Therefore, we prospectively follow a large group of patients within the Groningen Leeuwarden Axial Spondyloarthritis (GLAS) cohort.

The GLAS cohort started in 2004 and approximately 900 patients with axial spondyloarthritis are included in the northern part of the Netherlands. The standardized protocol consists of patient characteristics, medication use, questionnaires, physical examination, biobanking (serum, plasma, DNA samples), radiology and BMD measurements.

Our main fields of research interest concern:

  • Clinical features: spinal and extra-skeletal manifestations, patient-reported outcome
  • Inflammation: B cells and T cells
  • Bone metabolism: excessive bone formation and bone loss
  • Chronic pain and coping
  • Physical activity and lifestyle
  • Drugs: anti-inflammatory treatment
Relevance

How our research benefits to society

Our ambition is to optimize early diagnosis, prognosis and management of patients with spondyloarthritis. Therefore, we focus on different aspects of the disease: pathogenesis (unravel the role of B/T cells in SpA), clinical aspects (obtain more knowledge on clinical features and disease progression of radiographic and non-radiographic axial SpA patients) and treatment (investigate the long-term effect of anti-inflammatory treatment on PROMs and bone-related outcome; evaluation of chronic pain beyond inflammation; coping and lifestyle including physical activity).

Our collaborations

We have international and national collaborations within the ASAS working group and the Dutch Society of Rheumatology.

Contact

Small profile photo of A. Spoorenberg
Anneke Spoorenberg Rheumatologist
Small profile photo of S. Arends
Suzanne Arends Assistant professor / Epidemiologist

University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG)
Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology
Spondyloarthritis research group
Postbus 30.001
9700 RB Groningen
The Netherlands

Visiting address
University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG)
Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology
Spondyloarthritis research group
Hanzeplein 1
9713 GZ Groningen