Ankylosing Spondylitis
Does this patient have ankylosing spondylitis? Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is prototype axial spondyloarthropathy (SpA); historically the diagnosis requires the presence of radiographic spinal damage which evolves over years. Patients present with inflammatory low back pain long before they demonstrate characteristic radiographic changes of sacroiliitis, and findings of syndesmophyte formation may take more than 10 years…