Abstract

Ankylosing Spondylitis with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus - A Rare Coexistence

Author(s): Chintala Bhavya

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Ankylosing spondylitis are two separate immunological disorders with different etiopathogenic profile and their coexistence is very rare. Here we describe two cases of ankylosing spondylitis with SLE. The first case was HLA B27+ arthritis with predominant peripheral involvement with bilateral hip disease associated with non-scarring alopecia, recurrent oral ulcers and positive immunological markers fitting into criteria for lupus. The second case was 37 yr old male lupus (predominant MSK and cutaneous) patient with high titre ANA and anti dsDna positive diagnosed in 2011and on treatment with methotrexate who now presented with inflammatory low backache. On evaluation, he was found to have HLA B27+ with bilateral active sacroilitis. The distinguishing feature of our cases is that in the first case, both the disorders presented at nearly same time frame while second case had a significant time frame between the two disorders.