Ankylosing Spondylitis: Your Back Pain Story and Scans as Research Data

Every figure in this guide comes from a published source, linked where it appears and kept in CureCircle's evidence base with the source's own words. It is not medical advice. Read on 7 November 2026.

Ankylosing spondylitis, also called axial spondyloarthritis, usually begins in young adults as back pain that is worse in the morning and better with movement. Because back pain is so common, many people wait years before anyone thinks of inflammation. How long the diagnosis took, what the pain and stiffness were like, and how life changed with each treatment, from exercise and anti-inflammatories to biologics, is what research on the condition needs.

How many people live with it

A systematic review estimated 1.30 to 1.56 million people with ankylosing spondylitis in Europe and 4.63 to 4.98 million in Asia, with a mean prevalence of 23.8 per 10,000 in Europe and 31.9 in North America. In UK primary care, the share of people with a diagnosis increased between 1998 and 2017 from 0.13% to 0.18%.

The records worth keeping

NICE's guideline on spondyloarthritis describes the tests that leave records:

• An X-ray of the sacroiliac joints, offered for people with suspected axial spondyloarthritis, and an MRI of the spine and sacroiliac joints if the X-ray does not settle it.
• An HLA-B27 blood test in some cases, to guide referral to a rheumatologist.
• A disease activity score: the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) and a spinal pain score, used to decide on and review biologic treatment.
• Bone density scans every 2 years.

A series of BASDAI scores, the scan reports and your prescription history make a strong record. If you do not have them, ask your rheumatology service for a copy.

What sharing it is worth

CureCircle values every contribution with a public benchmark built from what health data has sold for. A complete ankylosing spondylitis story with the records the guideline lists comes to about $96 per licence on the benchmark today. Every line and its source is on the ankylosing spondylitis page.

A licence is not a one-off sale: the same de-identified story can be licensed to several research teams, and you earn a share each time.

How to share it

You start by writing what you live with in your own words; a few quick questions follow, then an AI interviewer asks about the details only you know, such as how long the diagnosis took, and you rate every treatment you tried. You can add scan reports, blood results and clinic letters as PDFs or photos, and the AI reads them into your own medical file. Before anything is shared, you read the de-identified summary and decide.

Start your story, or read what your health data is worth first.