Spondyloarthopathy is a long word referring to a group of autoimmune inflammatory forms of arthritis that may affect the spine. Examples of diseases that fall into this category include Ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, reactive arthritis (Reiter's disease), juvenile spondyloarthropathy, and the arthritis associated with inflammatory bowel disease.
Factors these diseases have in common are:
o They affect the sacroiliac joints and the spine
o Other joints including the fingers and toes may become inflamed
o Increased family history of the disease
o Lack of rheumatoid factor
The HLA-B27 gene is markedly associated with this set of conditions. This is detected through blood testing.
The back pain associated with spondyloarthropathy has a few distinguishing features that separates it from mechanical back pain due to degenerative arthritis.
Inflammatory back pain cause extended morning stiffness- at least an hour or longer. The pain from inflammatory causes tends to come on after midnight and in the early morning. Exercise improves inflammatory back symptoms but makes mechanical back pain worse. The peak age of onset is usually 12-40 years for inflammatory spine disease and 20-65 years for mechanical.
One major distinguishing characteristic is the presence of enthesitis. This is inflammation where the tendons meet the bone.
Other areas that this type of arthritis may affect include the eyes (iritis), lungs (restrictive lung disease), heart (aortic valve disease, heart block), gut (inflammatory bowel), and skin (psoriasis).
Peculiar sausage shaped swelling of the fingers and toes can also occur. This is called dactylitis.
The inflammatory spondyloarthropathies are a progressive debilitating form of arthritis. The diagnosis must be established as early as possible so that aggressive treatment can be instituted. This group od disorders can be controlled and often may be put into sustained remission.
No comments:
Post a Comment