What is Ankylosing Spondylitis?
Ankylosing spondylitis is a type of arthritis which majorly affects your spine. Along with the pain in the spine, it also causes severe inflammation of the vertebrae. This inflammation leads to severe chronic pain and disability.
It can also cause pain and stiffness in different other parts of your body mostly in the large joints such as shoulder, hips, and knees.
Symptoms
There are many varying symptoms of the Ankylosing Spondylitis. The inflammation can range from mild to moderate flare which changes with periods of almost no symptoms.
Generally, back pain is a common symptom in the morning and at night. Pain can also occur in other large joints like hips and shoulders.
The other symptoms are:
- Stiffness in body parts at early morning
- Posture deformities along with stooped shouldersAppetite loss
- Fever and fatigue
- Weight loss
- Deficiency of iron or anaemia
Since there is an involvement of inflammation in AS, other parts get also affected. The symptoms can be:
- Inflammation of the bowels
- Eyes inflammation
- Inflammation in the heart valve
Causes
There are no particular identified causes of the ankylosing spondylitis. It has appeared that this disorder tends to run in families so genetic factors could play a major role. As per many researches, you are nearly 10-20 times more likely if someone in your family is suffering from ankylosing spondylitis.
Who treats Ankylosing Spondylitis?
A rheumatologist doctor have specialization in providing Ankylosing Spondylitis treatment along with other arthritis treatments. These are the medical doctors having extensive training in skeletal and inflammatory disorders, and treating all types of arthritis.
Dr Bhupendra Vaishnav is an expert rheumatologist doctor having a vast experience in treating different forms of arthritis such as Ankylosing Spondylitis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Spondyloarthritis, Gout and others. He is available at Jaipur Care, to provide you best Ankylosing Spondylitis treatment in Jaipur.
What you can expect from a Rheumatologist?
A rheumatologist will firstly diagnose the AS, and rule out any other cause of the symptoms by taking different tests. These tests will include:
- Your and your family medical history
- Physical tests
- Blood tests
- Imaging tests such as X-ray and MRI
If all results are positive for AS, then the rheumatologist will start the treatment. The treatment will include medicines and physical therapies.
Risk factors
The risk factors of the ankylosing spondylitis vary from age to location and other factors. These are:
A protein HLA-B27 presence in the gene have mostly found to suffer from this disease. Family history with this disease also plays a major as the disease passes through the genes.
The symptoms of the ankylosing spondylitis are mostly found in younger people, unlike with other arthritis problem which majorly occurs in old age people. Mostly, the symptoms appear between the age group of 20 to 40.
Gender has also contributed as a factor. In males, it nearly 3 times more common as compared to females
People of Caucasian descent are more prevalent to this disease as compare to the African descent or others.