World Ankylosing Spondylitis Day – May 6, 2023

History of World Ankylosing Spondylitis Day

The cause of Ankylosing Spondylitis is believed to involve a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Most patients with A.S. have a specific human leukocyte antigen known as the H.L.A.-B27 antigen, which causes an autoimmune or autoinflammatory response in patients. Diagnosis of this disease. is typically based on the symptoms with support from medical imaging and blood tests. Ankylosing Spondylitis has no cure. Treatments, such as medication, exercise, physical therapy, and surgery in rare cases, may improve symptoms and prevent worsening.

Ankylosing Spondylitis has been around for a long time, as it was distinguished from Rheumatoid Arthritis by Aelius Galenus, most popularly known as Galen, a Greek physician, surgeon, and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Skeletal evidence of the disease was thought to be found in the skeletal remains of a 5,000-year-old Egyptian mummy, but a subsequent report found that it was not a case of A.S. The first account of pathologic changes to the skeleton possibly associated with the disease was published by Bernard Connor in 1691. In 1818, Benjamin Brodie became the first physician to document a person believed to have active A.S.

In 1858, David Tucker published a booklet that described the case of Leonard Trask, who suffered from severe spinal deformity due to Ankylosing Spondylitis. It became the first documented case of A.S. in the United States, owing to its indisputable description of the characteristics of the disease. Over the years, others in the medical profession gave adequate descriptions that permitted an accurate prognosis of A.S. Vladimir Bekhterev of Russia in 1893, Adolph Strümpell of Germany in 1897, and Pierre Marie of France in 1898 all gave their descriptions and now have their last names as alternative names for Ankylosing Spondylitis.