Prognosis
AS can range from mild to progressively debilitating and from medically controlled to refractive. Some have times of active inflammation followed by times of remission, while others never have times of remission and have acute inflammation and pain.
Unattended cases of AS accompanied by dactylitis or enthesitis, especially when spine inflammation is not yet active, may result in a misdiagnosis of normal rheumatism. In a long-term undiagnosed period, osteopenia or osteoporosis of the AP spine may occur, causing eventual compression fractures and a back "hump". Typical signs of progressed AS are the visible formation of syndesmophytes on X-rays and abnormal bone outgrowths similar to osteophytes affecting the spine. The fusion of the vertebrae paresthesia is a complication due to the inflammation of the tissue surrounding nerves.
Organs commonly affected by AS, other than the axial spine and other joints, are the heart, lungs, eyes, colon, and kidneys. Other complications are aortic regurgitation, Achilles tendinitis, AV node block and amyloidosis. Owing to lung fibrosis, chest X-rays may show apical fibrosis, while pulmonary function testing may reveal a restrictive lung defect. Very rare complications involve neurologic conditions such as the cauda equina syndrome.
Read more about this topic: Ankylosing Spondylitis