Juvenile Ankylosing Spondylitis (Literature Review and Own Findings)

Abstract

We present a review of current literature and findings of our own surveys of 35 children and 182 adults with ankylosing spondylitis. Compared with the disease in adults, juvenile ankylosing spondylitis has a number of clinical features, which occurs only in boys, manifests by a more frequent lesion of axial joints (shoulder, hip), development of systemic bone deficiency (osteopenia, osteoporosis), enthesitis (in particular, of the femoral condyles and the vertebral joints, but not achillodynia), uveitis, and cardiopathy, proliferation (and not destruction) of bone sections during the onset of spondylopathy and a rare involvement in the process of the lumbar spine and the formation of epiphyseal osteoporosis, higher blood concentrations of interleukin-8 and -17, but lower values of interleukin-1β, circulating immune complexes, fibrinogen, immunoglobulins А and G. It may be desirable to separate ankylosing spondylitis as a nosological form, such as juvenile idiopathic arthritis (in the recent past, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis).

Keywords

• ankylosing spondylitis
• children
• adults
• course
• pathogenesis