Ankilosing spondylitis

For many years, inflammatory rheumatic diseases (IRDs) represented a source of disappointment in medical care caused by the mediocre efficacy of the available treatments. Some of these diseases, like Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) or Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), caused fear in the general population, especially due to associated joint deformities and subsequent disabilities. However, in the last 20 years, a new successful class of antirheumatic drugs has become available: biologic Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs (bDMARDs)...

There are no specific diagnostic tests or a gold standard method for measuring disease activity and outcome in spondyloarthropathies (SpA). Many different methods have been developed to assess the signs and symptoms in SpA. The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of scintigraphy, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), and Bath Ankilosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) in the evaluation of disease activity in early axial SpA diagnosed with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)...

HLA-B27 and associate antigens incidence were studied in 620 cases of seronegative spondiloarthropathies (SNS) and 262 controls of a Venezuelan mestizo population from Zulla state between 1985 and 1995. The incidence of HLA-B27 was 20.96% of all cases of SNS. It was increased in patients with ankilosing spondylitis (AS) 33.33% and Relter's syndrome (RS) 30%, but not in uveitis (Uv) 20% an psoriatic arthropathy (PsA) 0%. The incidence in the control group was 4.2%. This results are lower than the previous description in Venezuelan mestizo and caucasic population but are close to the incidence described in population of West Africa with important contribution to admixture of the occidental part of Venezuela...

The authors describe 5 cases of bi-apical pulmonary fibrosis occurring during the course of ankylosing spondylitis. In 4 patients the lesions were advanced and detected during pneumological investigations. In the 5th patient, the lesions were at an early stage and were discovered during a retrospective study of 100 case-reports of patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Radiological signs were morphologically similar: localized pulmonary lesions of the two apices, of the retractile type and with a fibrous hilar framework, bullous images that were more or less extensive, raising of the two hili with compensatory distention at both bases, and pleural lesions consisting of thickening of both pleurae at the apices...