The seronegative spondyloarthropathy complex The seronegative spondyloarthropathy complex embraces a group of inflammatory rheumatic disorders linked together by certain clinical, laboratory, and radiological manifestations. Clinically, the disorders are characterised by asymmetrical peripheral oligoarthritis and involvement of the sacroiliac joints (table 1). Manifestations in the eyes, mucocu...

OBJECTIVE To identify possible imbalance of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) and its soluble receptors in the different subgroups of juvenile chronic arthritis (JCA). METHODS Serum and synovial fluid samples from 45 children were examined, 25 pauciarticular JCA, 13 polyarticular JCA and seven spondyloarthropathy. TNFalpha, sTNFRI and sTNFRII levels were measured by EASIA and enzyme-lin...

OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to test several hypotheses: 1. That rheumatoid arthritis and syphilis were New World diseases, only transmitted to the Old World subsequent to the passages of Christopher Columbus; 2. To indirectly test the hypothesis that lead poisoning was prevalent in Roman Italy by looking for its byproduct, gout; 3. To test the hypothesis of compromised sanitation in anc...

In a recent issue of the Annals our group reported the cases of two HLA-B27 positive patients who developed peripheral arthritis immediately after a significant traumatic episode.1 Unlike previously reported cases of HLA-B27 associated peripheral arthritis triggered by trauma24 they showed a rapid, severe destructive process. In the past few months both patients have had total hip replacement. ...

Sulphasalazine has been shown to have an effect in patients with spondyloarthropathies, but the clinical indication for its use is controversial and its long term effect has not yet been evaluated. Treatment with sulphasalazine was analysed retrospectively in a group of 372 patients with a wide range of spondyloarthropathies to determine subsets of patients showing differential effects of the d...

Human diseases sometimes represented across phylogenetic lines. Their recognition is at times compromised by differential (between human and veterinary medicine) use of diagnostic terms. A major impetus to such change is recognition of additional treatment options that would not be considered for the replaced diagnosis/category. Canine syndesmophytes are recognized as identifier for spondyloart...

Pathologies in the skeleton of phytosaurs, extinct archosauriform reptiles restricted to the Late Triassic, have only been rarely described. The only known postcranial pathologies of a phytosaur are two pairs of fused vertebrae of "Angistorhinopsis ruetimeyeri" from Halberstadt, Germany, as initially described by the paleontologist Friedrich von Huene. These pathologic vertebrae are redescribed...

Arthralgia and spondyloarthropathy of the peripheral and the axial joints are common in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases. Evidence for this association has been provided by clinical, epidemiologic, and immunologic studies confirming the presence of shared inflammatory pathways in gut and joint. Bacterial gut infections such as Salmonella typhimurium, Yersinia enterocolitica, Shigella, ...

We report an adolescent girl with long standing spondyloarthritis and chronic diarrhea. Colonoscopy and biopsy revealed microscopic colitis. All serology and HLA-B27 were negative. This case is reported for its rarity and the need to evaluate gut in chronic arthritis to achieve clinical remission.