Skip to main content
PMC home page
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases logoLink to Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
. 1993 Mar;52(3):174–176. doi: 10.1136/ard.52.3.174

Mortality and causes of death in 398 patients admitted to hospital with ankylosing spondylitis.

K Lehtinen 1
PMCID: PMC1005012  PMID: 8484668

Abstract

The mortality and causes of death in 398 patients (47 women, 351 men) with definite ankylosing spondylitis, admitted to hospital for the first time between 1961 and 1969, were investigated. The mean age at first admission was 36.5 years (SD 11.8). After a mean follow up time of 25.7 years, a total of 152 patients (12 women, 140 men) had died. The expected mortality based on the mortality statistics of the general population of the same sex and age was 103.1 (9.4 women and 93.7 men). Thus the overall mortality of the patients with ankylosing spondylitis was 1.5 times that expected. Those patients who had died were significantly older, had a higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and more inflamed peripheral joints when first seen than the surviving patients. The main difference between the observed and expected causes of death was the high incidence of deaths from ankylosing spondylitis, which was the underlying cause of death in 27 patients. The mechanism of death in these patients was secondary amyloidosis in 19, cardiovascular complications in six, fracture of the spine in one, and it was not known in one patient. Excess deaths due to circulatory, gastrointestinal and renal diseases, and violence were also observed.

Full text

PDF
174

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. BLUMBERG B., RAGAN C. The natural history of rheumatoid spondylitis. Medicine (Baltimore) 1956 Feb;35(1):1–31. doi: 10.1097/00005792-195602000-00001. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Brown W. M., Doll R. Mortality from cancer and other causes after radiotherapy for ankylosing spondylitis. Br Med J. 1965 Dec 4;2(5474):1327–1332. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.5474.1327. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. CRUICKSHANK B. Pathology of ankylosing spondylitis. Bull Rheum Dis. 1960 Mar;10:211–214. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Carette S., Graham D., Little H., Rubenstein J., Rosen P. The natural disease course of ankylosing spondylitis. Arthritis Rheum. 1983 Feb;26(2):186–190. doi: 10.1002/art.1780260210. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Carter E. T., McKenna C. H., Brian D. D., Kurland L. T. Epidemiology of Ankylosing spondylitis in Rochester, Minnesota, 1935-1973. Arthritis Rheum. 1979 Apr;22(4):365–370. doi: 10.1002/art.1780220408. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Hart F. D. Ankylosing spondylitis. Lancet. 1968 Dec 21;2(7582):1340–1344. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(68)91832-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Jayson M. I., Salmon P. R., Harrison W. Amyloidosis in ankylosing spondylitis. Rheumatol Phys Med. 1971 May;11(2):78–82. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/11.2.78. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Kaprove R. E., Little A. H., Graham D. C., Rosen P. S. Ankylosing spondylitis: survival in men with and without radiotherapy. Arthritis Rheum. 1980 Jan;23(1):57–61. doi: 10.1002/art.1780230110. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Khan M. A., Khan M. K., Kushner I. Survival among patients with ankylosing spondylitis: a life-table analysis. J Rheumatol. 1981 Jan-Feb;8(1):86–90. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Lehtinen K. Cause of death in 79 patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Scand J Rheumatol. 1980;9(3):145–147. doi: 10.3109/03009748009098146. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Radford E. P., Doll R., Smith P. G. Mortality among patients with ankylosing spondylitis not given X-ray therapy. N Engl J Med. 1977 Sep 15;297(11):572–576. doi: 10.1056/NEJM197709152971103. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Smith P. G., Doll R. Mortality among patients with ankylosing spondylitis after a single treatment course with x rays. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1982 Feb 13;284(6314):449–460. doi: 10.1136/bmj.284.6314.449. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Villiaumey J., Lejeune E., Avouac B., Horreard P. Spondylarthrite ankylosante et amylose. Ann Med Interne (Paris) 1978 Jan;129(1):67–71. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. WILKINSON M., BYWATERS E. G. Clinical features and course of ankylosing spondylitis; as seen in a follow-up of 222 hospital referred cases. Ann Rheum Dis. 1958 Jun;17(2):209–228. doi: 10.1136/ard.17.2.209. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES