80-85% of people suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. Most back pain develops due to a group of mechanical problems, including a herniated disc. However, it is not the right approach to accept that all back pain is due to mechanical problems. Some inflammatory rheumatic diseases, especially the prototype of which is Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), can also present with low back pain.
AS is a rheumatic disease that mainly affects the spine and large joints such as hips and knees. It usually starts between the ages of 20-40 and is 3 times more common in men than in women. Low back pain due to AS usually has an insidious onset. It exhibits a character that increases especially at night, near the morning, and even wakes you up from sleep, is relieved with exercise and movement, and is accompanied by long-term morning stiffness. In case of a herniated disc, on the contrary, this condition increases with more movement, standing and sitting for a long time, and usually manifests itself in a way that affects the leg on one side and is accompanied by numbness and tingling.
While elevations can be detected in some laboratory tests (such as sedimentation or CRP) in AS, there is no problem reflected in blood tests in herniated disc.
One of the most common mistakes is that if AS is not taken into consideration in the diagnosis, the patient is subjected to a lumbar MRI (lumbar MRI) and the patient is diagnosed with a herniated disc even if the complaint is not due to a herniated disc and is followed up with the diagnosis of a herniated disc for years. Because some medications prescribed for a herniated disc can also reduce the waist and joint pain of a patient with AS, accurate diagnosis will be significantly delayed. Lumbar MRI is not always guiding for the diagnosis of AS. Since the joints in the waist region, which we call the sacroiliac joints, are the joints where AS first begins and is affected, a special MRI of this region and the demonstration of bone marrow edema and inflammation are very important in the diagnosis of AS.
Also rheumatic diseases such as AS. It should not be forgotten that there are also infectious and malignant diseases that can cause low back pain.
As a result, not every back pain is a herniated disc. If you have lower back pain If your back pain increases at night, long-lasting morning stiffness and/or problems such as joint pain, weight loss and fever accompany your back pain, you should definitely consult a physician without delay.
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