Ankylosing spondylitis versus psoriatic spondyloarthropathy

[Guest guest]

An excerpt from a live webcast from the Rheumatoid Arthritis

Information Network entitled " Understanding Psoriatic Arthritis: Hope

Through Knowledge and New Treatments " (10/17/00):

" ...We are so pleased to have among our guests this evening Dr.

Dafna Gladman. She joins us by telephone tonight from Toronto, Canada.

Dr. Gladman is a rheumatologist and professor of medicine at the

University of Toronto. She is also the recognized leading expert on

psoriatic arthritis. In 1978, she founded the Psoriatic Arthritis

Clinic, which comprises the largest and most comprehensively studied

group of psoriatic arthritis patients in the world. Her expertise is

often sought internationally....

LaRita: Yes. You touched a little bit upon ankylosing spondylitis.

I was wondering, how are psoriatic arthritis in the spine and ankylosing

spondylitis similar and different in both presentation and in treatment?

Dr. Gladman: It's a very good question. We actually did a study on

that in 1993. Ankylosing spondylitis is primarily an inflammatory

arthritis of the spine. And in its most severe form, what happens is

that the vertebrae - the bones of the spine - kind of get joined

together by bridging of bone between two vertebrae, so that the

consequence of that is that there is deformity of the spine, usually in

the form of a curvature forward, and that leads to some other problems

with other joints.

Now, the big difference between ankylosing spondylitis and the

psoriatic spondyloarthropathy, which is the term of the spine

involvement in psoriatic arthritis, is that the disease is not as severe

in the back. If there are these bony bridges, which we call

syndesmophytes, they tend to be scattered as opposed to contiguous, and

therefore you have less of a fusion of the spine, less of a deformity,

and the same goes for the involvement of the other joints of the spine

called the sacroiliac joints, which are actually in the pelvic bones.

Again, in psoriatic arthritis, they're not as severely affected, so

when we compare patients with ankylosing spondylitis to patients with

psoriatic arthritis, the psoriatic spine disease, psoriatic

spondyloarthropathy, begins at a later age. It's about ten years later

than ankylosing spondylitis. Ankylosing spondylitis tends to occur in

the late teens, early 20s, and psoriatic spondylitis occurs in the 30s.

So that's one difference. The second difference is that in psoriatic

spondylitis there are more women affected, and the third difference is

that the psoriatic spondylitis is less often restrictive in terms of

back movement than ankylosing spondylitis. So, if you had to have a

choice, you'd want to have the psoriatic one. "

Source:

http://www.healthtalk.com/psoriasis/101700/toc/basics/11.html

[Guest guest]

Thanks, . That's very interesting! The only confusing thing is I have

no psoriasis. Do you have to have it to have psoriatic

spondyloarthropathy?

Hugs,

Carol

[ ] Ankylosing spondylitis versus psoriatic

spondyloarthropathy

An excerpt from a live webcast from the Rheumatoid Arthritis

Information Network entitled " Understanding Psoriatic Arthritis: Hope

Through Knowledge and New Treatments " (10/17/00):

" ...We are so pleased to have among our guests this evening Dr.

Dafna Gladman. She joins us by telephone tonight from Toronto, Canada.

Dr. Gladman is a rheumatologist and professor of medicine at the

University of Toronto. She is also the recognized leading expert on

psoriatic arthritis. In 1978, she founded the Psoriatic Arthritis

Clinic, which comprises the largest and most comprehensively studied

group of psoriatic arthritis patients in the world. Her expertise is

often sought internationally....

LaRita: Yes. You touched a little bit upon ankylosing spondylitis.

I was wondering, how are psoriatic arthritis in the spine and ankylosing

spondylitis similar and different in both presentation and in treatment?

Dr. Gladman: It's a very good question. We actually did a study on

that in 1993. Ankylosing spondylitis is primarily an inflammatory

arthritis of the spine. And in its most severe form, what happens is

that the vertebrae - the bones of the spine - kind of get joined

together by bridging of bone between two vertebrae, so that the

consequence of that is that there is deformity of the spine, usually in

the form of a curvature forward, and that leads to some other problems

with other joints.

Now, the big difference between ankylosing spondylitis and the

psoriatic spondyloarthropathy, which is the term of the spine

involvement in psoriatic arthritis, is that the disease is not as severe

in the back. If there are these bony bridges, which we call

syndesmophytes, they tend to be scattered as opposed to contiguous, and

therefore you have less of a fusion of the spine, less of a deformity,

and the same goes for the involvement of the other joints of the spine

called the sacroiliac joints, which are actually in the pelvic bones.

Again, in psoriatic arthritis, they're not as severely affected, so

when we compare patients with ankylosing spondylitis to patients with

psoriatic arthritis, the psoriatic spine disease, psoriatic

spondyloarthropathy, begins at a later age. It's about ten years later

than ankylosing spondylitis. Ankylosing spondylitis tends to occur in

the late teens, early 20s, and psoriatic spondylitis occurs in the 30s.

So that's one difference. The second difference is that in psoriatic

spondylitis there are more women affected, and the third difference is

that the psoriatic spondylitis is less often restrictive in terms of

back movement than ankylosing spondylitis. So, if you had to have a

choice, you'd want to have the psoriatic one. "

Source:

http://www.healthtalk.com/psoriasis/101700/toc/basics/11.html