Clinical, radiographic and HLA associations as markers for different patterns of psoriatic arthritis.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine whether the five clinical forms of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) identified by Moll and Wright (Semin Arthritis Rheum 1973;3:55-78) could be clearly distinguished, especially as the disease evolved over time, to analyse whether radiographic features or HLA associations could define subsets with greater precision and to identify predictors of disease outcome.

Methods: Seventy-three patients (37 males and 36 females) were followed for a median time of 8 yr (range 1-16 yr). A standard clinical protocol was used to assess patients at each visit and two clinical scores.

Traumatic spinal cord injury complicating ankylosing spondylitis.

The aim of this paper is to review the incidence and characteristics found in traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) occurring in patients with long-standing ankylosing spondylitis (AS). The incidence of patients with traumatic SCI admitted to our unit from January 1984 to February 1996 was 2% (15 out of 893). They were all men with a mean age of 56 years.

Reactive arthritis with a severe lesion of the cervical spine.

Reactive arthritis, or Reiter's disease, characteristically affects the joints of the lower limbs in an asymmetrical pattern. Usually it does not affect the cervical spine, and atlantoaxial subluxations are the exception. This paper describes the case of an HLA-B27-positive female patient with a sexually acquired reactive arthritis where a non-reducible atlantoaxial subluxation was present.