Unfortunately, it is sometimes the case that people who actually have ankylosing spondylitis (AS) are misdiagnosed for long periods of time before finding out what is truly ailing them. Through the consistent efforts to make the public as well as health care providers aware of ankylosing spondylitis and related diseases, researchers are committed to making the process of AS diagnosis faster and more efficient.

The leading symptom of ankylosing spondylitis is low back pain and it can precede other evidence of the disease by many years, such as the development of radiographic sacoiliitis. Thus, even to have substantial proof of the disease in an x-ray can take half a decade or more. Other symptoms of AS include: Gradual onset of back pain and stiffness over a period of weeks or months, duration of symptoms longer than 3 months, early morning stiffness which is improved by a warm shower or light exercise, sometimes the pain is located in other areas of the body such as the buttocks or the neck, while the average age of onset is 26 years for either a man or a woman.

A recent study cited in the ADR Journal Online hoped to shed some light on early diagnosis of AS and undifferentiated spondyloarthritis. By looking at various disease probabilities and symptoms, rheumatologists hoped to develop a formula to help them with this goal. Doctors in the study looked at the following symptoms as possible indicators of AS: inflammatory back pain, alternating buttock pain, enthesis, arthritis, dactylitis, acute anterior uveitis, a positive family history, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease and good response to NSAIDs. Other factors taken into account were HLA-B27 association and abnormalities in skeletal imaging.

Through their study, they found that if a patient’s chronic lower back pain was actually of an inflammatory nature, the chance of having AS rose from 5% to 14%. Then, by taking account the above listed symptoms, if a patient who had 2-3+ of said symptoms, the probability of a patient having ankylosing spondylitis rose to 90%.

References: ADR Online, How to diagnose axial spondyloarthritis early, April 2004; Spondylitis.org