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Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
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Risk factors
By Mayo Clinic staff- Your sex. More males than females have the disease.
- Your age. Onset generally occurs between late adolescence and age 40.
- Your heredity. Genetics may play a role in the development of ankylosing spondylitis. In fact, the majority of people with this condition have the HLA-B27 gene. Having this gene doesn't mean that you'll acquire ankylosing spondylitis — many people without ankylosing spondylitis have this gene — but it may make you more susceptible to the disease. If you have ankylosing spondylitis, and you pass the HLA-B27 gene on to your child, there's only a one in five chance your child will develop ankylosing spondylitis.
References
- Yu DT, Patient information: Ankylosing spondylitis, http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Nov. 10, 2008.
- Mercier LR, Ankylosing spondylitis. In: Ferri FF. Ferri's Clinical Advisor 2009. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby Elsevier; 2009. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/109354214-4/0/1701/48.html?printing=true. Accessed Nov. 5, 2008.
- Ankylosing spondylitis. Genetics Home Reference. http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition=ankylosingspondylitis. Accessed Nov. 6, 2008.
- Taurog JD. The Spondyloarthritides: Anklyosing Spondylitis. In: Fauci AS, et al. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. 17th ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2862756&searchStr=ankylosing+spondylitis. Accessed Jan. 9, 2009.
- Song IH. Benefits and risks of ankylosing spondylitis treatment with nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs. Arthritis and Rheumatism. 2008;58(4):929-938.
- Yu DT. Treatment and prognosis of ankylosing spondylitis in adults. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Nov. 10, 2008.
