Ankylosing spondylitis

For a lay person:

Ankylosing spondylitis is a long-term inflammatory arthritis that mainly affects the spine and the joints where the spine meets the pelvis. It causes back pain and stiffness that are typically worse in the morning and after rest, and better with movement.

For a trained medical person:

An axial spondyloarthritis associated with HLA-B27, presenting with inflammatory back pain, sacroiliitis and sometimes enthesitis, uveitis and peripheral arthritis. Diagnosis uses imaging (MRI, X-ray) and clinical criteria. First-line treatment is NSAIDs and exercise, with TNF or IL-17 inhibitors for active disease.

In Chinese medicine:

Flaws and Sionneau's textbook differentiates this condition into these patterns: Liver-kidney qi and blood depletion and deficiency; Yang deficiency with governing vessel cold; Liver and Kidney Yin Deficiency; Cold and heat mixed together; Damp heat bi and obstruction; Blood Stasis. Treatment follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: See a doctor for back pain that wakes you at night and eases with movement, or for a painful red eye.