Current Rheumatology Reviews - Volume 4, Issue 2, 2008

Spondyloarthritis (SpA) is a common rheumatic disorder. It consists of ankylosing spondylitis (AS), reactive arthritis (ReA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), juvenile chronic arthritis (JCA), and undifferentiated spondyloarthritis (USpA), etc. Presenting differences from rheumatoid arthritis, SpA is characterized by axial and sacroiliac joint involvement, anterior uveitis, enthesopathy, dactylitis, positive HLA Read More

Spondyloarthritis (SPA) is a group of chronic arthritis, characterized by inflammatory back pain, peripheral arthritis and enthesitis. Since 1973, HLA-B27 has been known as an important genetic marker for AS and other SPA. In recent 10 years, after the clinical application of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) for SPA, a lot of researches including epidemiology, genetic and family, immunology and serology, pathology and tr Read More

There are race-related differences in the prevalence of AS/SpA. Asian and Pacific regions contain many countries and regions, and many different races and nations. The purpose of this article is to summarize the epidemiology data from these contries, to describe the clinical features of Asian AS/SpA patients, and to compare the clinic and genetic difference between different races. The prevalence of AS/SpA in Chinese and Th Read More

Spondyloarthritis is a family of chronic arthritis, characterized by inflammatory back pain, peripheral arthritis and enthesitis. The relationship between HLA-B27 and AS was found by a British investigator in 1973, which considerably differentiated this disease from rheumatoid arthritis. Obviously, the prevalence of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is correlated with the B27 positive rate in general population. In the Asian countr Read More

Genetic susceptibility to ankylosing spondylitis, the prototype of the seronegative spondyloarthropathies is strongly associated with the major histocompatibility antigen HLA-B27. However besides HLA-B27, there are other genes, both MHC and non-MHC, that predispose to susceptibility and severity of disease. Studies on the genetic epidemiology of these diseases in Asia have shown similar findings to those elsewhere; with Read More

HLA-B27 has been well-known for its strong association with spondyloarthropathy for more than 30 years. Much effort has been put forth to uncover the mysterious linkage of this gene with that disease spectrum. With its unique structural characteristic, this molecule was found to bind to a limited number of peptides with arginine at the p2 position, and be weakly associated with β2-microglobulin, which in turn, causes HLA Read More

HLA-B27-associated uveitis is the most common type of endogenous uveitis in the ethnic Chinese population. The typical presentation of HLA-B27 uveitis is acute anterior uveitis (AAU). AAU has been defined as a sudden onset of pain, redness, and photophbia associated with anterior chamber cells and flare ≥ 1+, the duration of which is less than 3 months. Recurrence of AAU with an alternating unilateral attack is an important Read More

The spondyloarthropathies (SpA) are defined as inflammatory arthropathies characterised by sacroiliac involvement and a relationship to HLA-B27. Undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy (USpA) includes the forms that do not meet the criteria for the established categories of SpA. The clinical spectrum of USpA is therefore wide, due to the various combinations of clinical and radiological manifestations of SpA. In a European po Read More

Uveitis is defined as inflammation in the uveal tract, which is the middle layer of the eye. In chronic and recurrent cases, visual acuity can be affected. Anterior uveitis is the most common form of uveitis and is the most frequent extraarticular manifestation of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients. Conversely, AS and other spondyloarthropathies (SpA) are the most common underlying diseases associated with anterior uvei Read More

This study was undertaken to assess the prevalence of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in Korean psoriasis patients and to evaluate its clinical features. The authors evaluated 504 patients with psoriasis who visited the dermatology clinic at Seoul National University Hospital. Fifty-three of these patients (10.5%) were diagnosed as having PsA. Plaque-type psoriasis was the most common in both the PsA and psoriasis only groups, and pust Read More

Spondyloarthritis (SpA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) have a significant social and economic impact on ethnic Chinese patients. Western medicine, especially NSAIDs and disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), are standard mainstream therapies for patients with SpA and AS. However, patient compliance with these medications is poor, due to the fear of side effects. In spite of their poor functional status and di Read More

Seronegative spondyloarthropathy is a group of diseases composed of ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthropathy, Reiter's syndrome, arthritis of inflammatory bowel disease, and undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy. These diseases share similar but variable radiological features. Spondyloarthropathy is reported to be related to HLA- B27, and is characterized by sacroiliitis, spondylitis, enthesis, and bone proliferati Read More

Spondyloarthropathy (SpA) comprises a family of chronic inflammatory arthritis disorders, and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is regarded as the most frequent and severe subtype of SpA. The prevalence of SpA in Chinese is about 0.2-0.3%. Information about the management of SpA is limited in Asian countries. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are still the medication of choice for relieving the spinal pain and morni Read More