Incidentally the AS Dx is likley to go away anyway really making the water muddy.
Not sure I follow. Can you elaborate?
To quote Chris Miller: "All of us are trying to educate everyone we can on the latest info as well as support them, but it is a constant, fluid situation in terms of what is currently "accepted". Heck, Axial Spondyloarthritis may replace many classifications soon. That will throw everyone a new curve ball in terms of USpA, JSpA and more."
If you think about it how can it be ANKYLOSING anything without fusion and How can it be SPONDYLITIS if it involves anything but the spine?
Around the world its changing/Spondyloarthritis is a family of arthritis, of which ankylosing spondylitis is the most common member. The other members are:
-Undifferentiated spondyloarthritis
-Non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis
-Reactive arthritis
-Arthritis associated with psoriasis (psoriatic arthritis)
-Arthritis associated with inflammatory bowel diseases (ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease)
In Europe Spondyloarthritis has also been classified into “axial” and “peripheral” spondyloarthritis according to whether the involvement is mainly in the spine or in the extremities and its becomingt that way more frequently in the literature.
Ankylosing spondylitis belongs to the axial class of spondyloarthritis. Many patients are diagnosed as having an axial form of undifferentiated spondyloarthritis and may subsequently develop ankylosing spondylitis. Certainly more descriptive.
