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Seronegative spondyloarthropathy (or seronegative spondyloarthritis) is a group of diseases involving the axial skeleton^[1] and having a negative serostatus.

"Seronegative" refers to the fact that these diseases are negative for rheumatoid factor.^[2]

[1] According to the Spondylitis Association of America website: http://www.spondylitis.org What is spondylitis? Spondylitis (pronounced spon-d-lie-tiss) is the name given to a group of chronic or long lasting diseases also called Spondyloarthritis (SpA), (spon-dyl-oh-arthritis) or spondyloarthropathy (spon-d-low-are-throp-ah-thee).

Thus spondylitis = spondyloarthritis = spondyloarthropathy This group of diseases primarily affect the spine (spondylo) and other joints. The group includes: ankylosing spondylitis, reactive arthritis (formerly Reiter's syndrome), psoriatic arthritis, enteropathic arthritis (spondylitis/arthritis associated with inflammatory bowel disease), and undifferentiated SpA. All display a variety of symptoms and signs, but they also share many features in common, including:

A tendency toward inflammatory arthritis of the spine, sacroiliac and other joints of the body

A condition called enthesopathy, which is an inflammation where the ligaments attach to the bone

A tendency to occur in more than one family member

The absence of physical signs or testing markers that are found in other types of arthritis, such as sub-cutaneous nodules (or lumps under the skin) and a positive blood test for the rheumatoid factor

The complete medical term for this group of diseases is the "seronegative" spondyloarthritides. "Sero" refers to blood (blood serum) and "negative" indicates that there is usually no rheumatoid factor present in the blood.

Most types of SpA begin around the ages of 20-30. Men are more likely to get SpA. Psoriatic arthritis, which affects men and women equally, is the exception. These conditions include spinal involvement and those affected tend to have the gene that makes a protein called HLA-B27.

Most people with spondylitis lead long and productive lives. Certain complications, however, can lead to disability. It is important to be on the lookout for signs and symptoms of the more serious complications.

The Prevalence of Spondylitis The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the National Arthritis Data Workgroup released a study in 2008 that indicates that Ankylosing Spondylitis and its related diseases affect anywhere between 0.6 million and 2.4 million adults in the United States. It should be noted that rheumatoid arthritis only affects 1.3 million adults, down from the previous estimate of 2.1 million.

Contents 1 Examples 2 Common characteristics 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Examples

Types include:^[3]

• ankylosing spondylitis
• psoriatic arthritis
• reactive arthritis
• enteropathic spondylitis
• undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy

Some sources also include Behcet's disease^{[citation needed]} and Whipple's disease.^[4]

[edit] Common characteristics

These diseases has following conditions in common:

• They are in relation to HLA-B27^[5]
• sacroiliitis and spondylitis are present in them.
• familial aggregation occurs
• Overlap is likely in them
• rheumatoid factor is not present

[edit] See also

• spondyloarthropathy

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• http://www.gpnotebook.co.uk/simplepage.cfm?ID=-254803955

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