ankylosing spondylitis-Kathy

June 5, 2002

Kathy,

Yes you can have both. Multiple autoimmune diseases are not uncommon.

Doctors usually base their diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis on symptoms

such as pain and stiffness, and X-rays showing inflammation of the

sacroiliac joints at the back of the pelvis.

Reactive Arthritis is the same as Reiter¹s. I¹ve posted information about

Reiters¹s this week, so read up on it and maybe it will help. There is no

one laboratory test for diagnosing Reiter's syndrome but HLA-B27 genetic

marker is found in 2/3 of patients, so your doctor will run tests for this

marker. But this marker is also found in AS.

The most common way of developing Reiter¹s is Chlamydia through sexual

contact or salmonella food poisoning. I¹ve read case histories where

outbreaks of food poisoning has left many people with lifelong arthritis

complications.

Hopefully your RD will be able to diagnose you soon. It¹s so frustrating

not knowing. Since your bone scan already confirmed inflammatory

spondylarthritis, and both Rieter¹s and AS is in the spondylarthritis

family, it sounds like they are narrowing it down. Psoriatic Arthritis is

also in the same family. Skin rash in PA and in Reiter¹s are very

similar and it¹s difficult to tell them apart.

I hope you get answers soon.

a

..

AS tends to be inherited.

Diagnostic tests

If your symptoms or X-rays suggest ankylosing spondylitis, but the diagnosis

is uncertain, your doctor may perform a blood test to check you for the

HLA-B27 gene. About 90 percent of people diagnosed with ankylosing

spondylitis do test positive for this gene.

On 6/4/02 12:02 PM, " kringlemom@... " <kringlemom@...> wrote:

> i forgot to say, my rheumi also mentioned ankylosing spondylitis. neither of

> these sound good to me, can i have both? kathy in il

>

Recommended Posts