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About 10.000 Danes suffer from ankylosing spondylitis. Some of these cases are probably less serious and may never even receive a diagnosis. The condition is two to three times more common in men than in women, and the symptoms usually start at the age of 20-30 years. Some people will, however, have back pain as early as in their teenage years.
Ankylosing spondylitis was first described in more recent times by the Russian doctor, Vladimir Mikhailovitch Bechterew (1857-1927). Subsequently, this is where the name comes from, and the word morbus is Latin and means disease. Although the diagnosis is fairly new, signs of ankylosing spondylitis have been found in mummies excavated from tombs in the Egyptian pyramids.
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