What are the common clinical manifestations of ankylosing spondylitis?

When talking about spondylitis, many people will think of ankylosing spondylitis, but in fact, spondylitis has a wider range. Let us now understand the clinical manifestations of spondylitis.

Classification of Spondylitis

1. Ankylosing spondylitis. The disease is more common in young people, generally under the age of 30, and more common in men than in women.

2. Undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy. Spondylitis that is not clearly diagnosed means that there are no typical symptoms of ankylosing spondylitis.

3. Hyperplastic spondylitis. It is more common in the elderly, is a metabolic disease, and has bamboo-like changes.

Clinical manifestations of spondylitis

Spondylitis is not just a disease of the spinal joints. Most of the cases may be accompanied by invasion of major joints throughout the body; involvement of different joints will produce pain and symptoms related to that joint.

When the hip joint is affected, patients may complain of hip pain, but some patients often complain of groin pain on the affected side. In the early stages, hip flexion and limited mobility may occur, and flexion contracture deformity may also occur in the knee joint. Although rare, it is also one of the causes of disability caused by this disease.

Redness, swelling and pain may occur in other toe joints, but this is rare in cases with residual deformities. Swelling and pain in the finger joints are the least common. In addition, a few patients may experience pain, swelling or tenderness in the temporomandibular joint, costovertebral joint, and sternoclavicular joint. Costovertebral joint involvement may cause chest pain and weakened breathing, and may also stimulate the intercostal nerves, causing intercostal neuralgia and left-sided intercostal neuralgia. Some patients may be misdiagnosed as angina pectoris, so it is worth noting.