Ankylosing spondylitis and sickle cell disease: a case report

Abstract

Ankylosing spondylitis is an inflammatory chronic rheumatism characterized by an enthésite of the axial skeleton leading to an ankylosis. The disease is very often associated with HLA B27 in the Caucasian population; on the other hand at the African black the infection by the HIV constitutes a ground of preference. The authors report an exceptional case of a woman with severe ankylosing spondylitis and sickle cell hemoglobin C disease without infection with the human immunodeficiency virus. They discuss the physiopathology of this dramatic association.