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Muhammad A. Khan, Ankylosing spondylitis and related spondyloarthropathies: the dramatic advances in the past decade, Rheumatology, Volume 50, Issue 4, April 2011, Pages 637–639, https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keq433
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Difficulties of diagnosis: how far has AS advanced?
AS and related SpAs are relatively common and highly heritable arthropathies, the pathogenesis of which is still poorly understood [1]. I should perhaps declare a personal, as well as a professional, interest in the field: I entered medical school 50 years ago, while suffering from AS that had gone undiagnosed for the previous 4 years. It took another 2 years (when I was first seen by an internist, a Professor of Medicine) for the disease to be finally diagnosed. I remember the dramatic efficacy of butazolidine, one of the early NSAIDs, which not only enabled me to finish my medical education, but also allowed me to join the Pakistan Army Medical Corps without revealing my illness, in my zeal to serve my country when it was attacked. But I may add that, during the 6 years before diagnosis, I had received many wrong treatments, including a year of treatment with streptomycin (which I self-injected), along with isoniazid (INH) and para-amino salicylic acid (PAS), for a presumed diagnosis of tuberculosis. When this treatment did not make any difference to my symptoms, I was treated with i.v. infusions of honey, imported from West Germany. This also had no effect on my disease, but I think it took away any bitterness I may have had towards the Professor of Orthopedics for my delayed diagnosis and wrong treatment, and made me ever so sweet. I may also add that I underwent so many radiographs of my pelvis and back during the first 6 years that I must have glowed at night (I later did develop cancer of the kidney).
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