BACKGROUND In the present study, we evaluated relationships between serum biomarkers and clinical/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in golimumab-treated patients with ankylosing spondylitis. METHODS In the GO-RAISE study, 356 patients with ankylosing spondylitis randomly received either placebo (n = 78) or golimumab 50 mg or 100 mg (n = 278) injections every 4 weeks through week 24 (p...

Objective: To examine the therapeutic effect of the interleukin 1 (IL1) receptor antagonist anakinra in ankylosing spondylitis in an open label trial. Methods: Anakinra (100 mg) was given subcutaneously daily over 24 weeks to 20 NSAID refractory patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Thirteen completed the study. Clinical outcome assessments included disease activity, function, metrology, patien...

There has been recent interest in the association between human leucocyte antigen-27 and ankylosing spondylitis. Brewerton, Caffrey, Hart, James, Nicholls, and Sturrock (1973) and Schlosstein, Terasaki, Bluestone, and Pearson (1973) demonstrated this antigen in 96% and 87% of ankylosing spondylitics, respectively, as compared with about 5%in normal controls. It is well known that recurrent Reit...

This study was aimed to evaluate the relationship between serum interleukin-23 (IL-23) levels and ankylosing spondylitis (AS).Twenty male patients diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis according to the 1984 modified New York criteria for AS and twenty male healthy controls were included in this study.The demographic characteristics, clinical and laboratory findings of the patients were recorded...

Two patients with ankylosing spondylitis were found to have IgA nephropathy and leucocytoclastic cutaneous vasculitis. Immunofluorescence showed perivascular deposition of IgA in the skin of one patient and in the mesangium of both patients. Such an association has been reported only once before. This supports the concept of abnormal IgA immune stimulation in the pathogenesis of ankylosing spon...

Although the therapeutic uses of tumor necrosis factor alpha antagonists have added a highly effective treatment of ankylosing spondylitis and associated spondyloarthropathies, they are associated with many untoward effects. We describe a Saudi patient with ankylosing spondylitis who developed severe psoriatic lesions in treatment with infliximab. He had no personal, or family history of psoria...

A 57 year old white man with aortic insufficiency and previously undiagnosed ankylosing spondylitis, who developed subacute bacterial endocarditis (SBE), is described. Emergency aortic valve replacement was necessary, and the aortic valve pathology showed diffusely fibrosed and thickened valve leaflets with bacterial vegetations. This is the first recorded case of SBE in ankylosing spondylitis.

Fifty-five patients with ankylosing spondylitis and 16 control patients matched for sex and age were examined for evidence of occult inflammatory bowel disease. In all patients evaluation included history and physical examination, barium enema, sigmoidoscopy, and rectal biopsy. The results of this study suggest that there is no increased prevalence of occult inflammatory bowel disease in patien...

A human skeleton recovered from a Sicilian archaeological site and dating from the Hellenistic period (330-210 B.C.) presents a pathological pattern suggesting a transition between ankylosing spondylitis and rheumatoid arthritis, providing evidence in support of the hypothesis that rheumatoid arthritis may have recently evolved out of ankylosing spondylitis.

Ankylosing spondylitis and axial spondyloarthropathy have characteristic age- and sex-specific onset patterns, typical entheseal lesions, and marked heritability, but the integrative mechanisms causing the pathophysiological and structural alterations remain largely undefined. Myofascial tissues are integrated in the body into webs and networks which permit transmission of passive and active te...