Lizzie - Delighted that things are moving forward for you in such a positive way.
Behcet's : here's some information
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Behcets disease/Pages/introduction.aspx
With eight members of your family diagnosed with AS, then yours is somewhat unlikely to be Behcet's...which is also known as the Silk Road Disease - due to the prevalence of its being found in peoples of that region (Turkey to China.) One of our KA members was diagnosed with Behcet's - he was also of Turkish origins.
Yours sounds like classic AS. ALL the boxes for AS are ticked, and then confirmation is the family. Will be interesting to see if you are HLA-B27 positive or negative. IF negative, then that in and of itself does not mean that you could not develop AS! Relevant papers on positive v negative, authored by the top rheumies - one being Prof KA Khan - who is (interestingly) himself a spondy. For interest, here's a couple of links:
KickAS.org - Pain Map
www.kickas.org/medical/6.shtml - Similarto KickAS.org - Pain Map
Ankylosing Spondylitis as an Auto-immune Disease Caused by Intestinal ... Correspondence to: Professor Alan Ebringer Division of Life Sciences, Infection and ... In general, HLA-B27 negative patients with AS, have a milder disease with an ..... lll-19. 10. Khan MA. HLA-B27 polymorphism and association with disease. Ankylosing Spondylitis > Other Articles > Free ... - Hlab27.com
www.hlab27.com/OtherArticles/FreePublications.aspxAnkylosing Spondylitis and Related Forms of Spondyloarthritis ... Remarkable Polymorphism of HLA-B27 ... Free Published Scientific Articles by Prof. Muhammad Asim Khan on Ankylosing Spondylitis. 1. .... in HLA-B27 positive and negative patients with ankylosing spondylitis: study of ... Khan MA, Kushner I, Freehafer AA.
Oh. And here's another good AS paper - and see further associated papers in the side bar:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2077878/Take care -
