Axial spondyloarthritis - from inflammation to ankylosis

Inflammation and ankylosis: still an enigmatic relationship in spondyloarthritis.

The introduction of targeted therapies against cytokine tumour necrosis factor (TNF) alpha has dramatically changed the management, prognosis and perspectives of patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and related forms of spondyloar-thritis. 1 Both the soluble TNF receptor etanercept and the different anti-TNF antibodies are highly successful in reducing the signs and symptoms of disease, th...

Inflammation, new bone formation and treatment options in axial spondyloarthritis.

How and whether ankylosis is connected with inflammation has been discussed for a long time. There are two major reasons for this debate. First, no effective antiinflammatory treatment was available in the past for ankylosing spondylitis (AS) as salicylates, which have been used to treat inflammatory rheumatic diseases for over 100 years, were not effective. However, the first non-steroidal ant...

Epidemiology of axial spondyloarthritis

How to diagnose axial spondyloarthritis early.

BACKGROUND Chronic low back pain (LBP), the leading symptom of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and undifferentiated axial spondyloarthritis (SpA), precedes the development of radiographic sacroiliitis, sometimes by many years. OBJECTIVE To assign disease probabilities and to develop an algorithm to help in the early diagnosis of axial SpA. METHODS Axial SpA comprises AS and undifferentiated SpA...

NSAIDs in axial spondyloarthritis: to be continued…?

Phenylbutazone was discovered in 1946 and promptly exhibited efficacy in various rheumatic diseases in the early 1950s. Its efficacy on pain and general well-being was especially present in ankylosing spondylitis (AS), which was then known as ‘rheumatoid spondylitis’. 2 However, even in the early days, non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were not considered harmless drugs, as the toxi...