Question
What are the symptoms of ankylosing spondylitis?
Answer
Inflammatory low back pain is the cardinal symptom. The pain starts slowly without preceding trauma and is generally in the low back and occasionally over both buttocks. There is morning stiffness often lasting greater than one hour and the pain improves with activity. The morning is the worst time of day. Young men out number young women roughly 3 to 1, and in the older studies even greater. Many patients respond dramatically to NSAIDs.
