title: Cause of death in 79 patients with ankylosing spondylitis.
abstract: The causes of death of 79 patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) diagnosed between 1952 and 1959 were investigated. The basic cause of death was a cardiovascular disease in 35.4% of the patients, AS in 29.1%, violent death in 10.1%, malignancy in 8.9%, gastrointestinal diseases in 6.3%, pulmonary tuberculosis in 2.5%, urogenital diseases in 2.5%, respiratory diseases in 3.8% and diabetes mellitus in 1.3%. Only one patient had a lymphoma and another patient chronic lymphatic leukaemia despite the X-ray therapy that almost every patient received. The immediate cause of death was uraemia caused by renal amyloidosis in 18% of the cases. In addition, uraemia from renal amyloidosis was part of the basic cause of death or a contributory factor in 3.8%. Thus, uraemia caused by renal amyloidosis in one way or another affected the cause of death in 21.5% of the cases. This figure is considerably higher than those given in earlier works.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010653:Phenylbutazone / Q000009:adverse effects; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects; D013167:Spondylitis, Ankylosing / Q000401:mortality*
chemical_list: D010653:Phenylbutazone