[Destructive changes in the spine during ankylosing spondylarthritis]

Destructive changes in vertebral bodies, mainly in the thoracic part, zones of rearrangement and pseudoarthrosis are revealed in Bekhterev's disease. These changes develop in advanced stages of this disease in the form of subligamentous destruction of the anterior surface of vertebral bodies, limited destruction in the area of anterior parts in the zone of intervertebral disks, superficial destruction of cranial and caudal body plates with shortening of a height of an intervertebral disk, deep destruction of adjacent surfaces of vertebral bodies with expansion of intervertebral spaces.