Ankylosing spondylitis or ankylosing spondylitis

What's happened?

The name of this disease has Greek roots: ankylos means bent, spondylos means vertebra. Thus, ankylosing spondylitis is a disease of the spine in which it becomes bent. Just don’t confuse it with banal bad posture. With ankylosing spondylitis, the joints of the vertebrae become inflamed, which leads to their fusion. As a result, the spine becomes almost motionless. As if surrounded by a hard case, it begins to resemble a bamboo stalk bent by a gust of wind. This disease was first described by the Russian neurologist Vladimir Bekhterev. In his honor, ankylosing spondylitis received its second name - ankylosing spondylitis.

Most often (5-9 times) men suffer from ankylosing spondylitis. The first signs of the disease appear in late adolescence, around the age of 15.

Causes

Long-term inflammatory diseases and stress are often risk factors for the disease. However, the true causes of the development of ankylosing spondylitis are not precisely known. Apparently, the disease develops as a result of latent infections, but it does not develop in everyone, but only in those people who have a specific hereditary predisposition and certain genetic characteristics of the immune system.

What's happening?

As the disease develops, gradual damage to the joints of various parts of the spine occurs. First of all, ankylosing spondylitis affects the sacroiliac joints (pelvic joints). Then the intervertebral and costovertebral joints are involved in the inflammatory process. If the process is not brought under control in time, the patient may experience severe stiffness of the spine, up to its complete immobility.

How to recognize?

The first signs of this disease are mild pain in the sacral area, and sometimes in the groin and in the area of ​​the outer thighs. These sensations are most pronounced in the morning and at night. The patient's sleep is disturbed. In the morning, stiffness is felt in the back, and it is difficult for patients to get out of bed.

Gradually, sometimes after several years, pain and stiffness in the neck and back appear, and discomfort is also felt in the morning. Bends to the sides, forwards and backwards are difficult and painful. Deep breathing, coughing and sneezing also cause pain.

Ankylosing spondylitis is characterized by increasing limitation of spinal mobility, its shortening, as well as periods of pain. If left untreated, the disease can lead to complete immobility of the spine; its cervical and thoracic regions assume a pronounced suppliant pose (arms bent at the elbows, a hunched back, a bowed head, legs slightly bent at the knees).

Why is it dangerous?

In addition to limiting the mobility of the spine, if left untreated, the disease spreads to other organs and systems.

Diagnostics

The diagnosis is made in the presence of the following symptoms: pain in the lumbar region that lasts more than three months and does not decrease with rest; chest pain and feeling of stiffness; difficulty breathing.

If these symptoms are present, it is necessary to consult a rheumatologist and prescribe additional research methods. Of primary importance in diagnosis is radiography of the spine or magnetic resonance imaging of the joints. The doctor also prescribes a clinical blood test, which reveals general signs of inflammation.

Treatment

Currently, in the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (indomethacin, ortofen), glucocorticoids are used; in severe cases of the disease, immunosuppressants are indicated. In recent years, sulfasalazine, which belongs to the group of antirheumatic drugs, has been used as the main drug.

In addition to drug therapy, physiotherapy, manual therapy and medical