[Ankylosing spondylarthritis beginning in childhood]

As many as 200 patients underwent comparative clinicoroentgenological and genetic examinations. The patients suffered from ankylosing spondylarthritis and were followed up for a long time. The patients were distributed into 2 groups depending on the age at which the disease commenced. Group I included 40 persons with the juvenile variant of the disease onset (under 16 years), group II comprised 160 subjects who fell ill at an age over 16 years. It has been shown that the patients who fell ill at an age under 16 years are prone to a more acute disease onset with involvement of the peripheral joints, to a slower and not so pronounced damage to the spine whereas the rate and the degree of injury to the iliosacral joints are practically the same in both the groups. On the contrary, adults are characterized by a gradual onset with earlier clinicoroentgenological signs of injury to the axial skeleton, which leads to rapid derangement of the posture in such patients.