Introduction.- Overview of Ankylosing Spondylitis.- Clinical Manifestations of Ankylosing Spondylitis.- Diagnosis of Ankylosing Spondylitis.- Imaging in Ankylosing Spondylitis.- Management of Ankylosing Spondylitis.- Socioeconomic Aspects of Ankylosing Spondylitis.

Joachim Sieper, MD is Consultant and Head of Rheumatology at the Charité University Hospital, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin, Germany. A prolific researcher and writer, he has been an investigator since 1989 and a principal investigator since 1993 on several placebo-controlled randomized trials, which have been published internationally. He has authored an contributed to over 300 journal papers. Jürgan Braun, MD is Medical Director of the Rheumatology Medical Centre, Ruhrgebiet in Herne, Germany and is a lecturer at the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany. He is also an honorary Professor in Rheumatology at the Charité Medical School in Berlin, Germany. He has been the recipient of several prestigious awards including the Ankylosing Spondylitis Patients Association Award in 1996, the Tosse-Research Award in Pediatric Rheumatology in 1998, the Carol Nachman Research Award in 2000 and the EULAR prize in 2003.