One hundred and twenty-two consecutive patients hospitalized for ankylosing 
spondylitis (AS) were reexamined. The frequency of clinical signs and results of 
tests for associations are presented. Psoriasis was associated with a distal 
pattern of peripheral arthropathy. Spinal rigidity was predominantly seen in 
males. Males with phalangeal arthropathy exhibited preserved spinal mobility. 
This was the case also when HLA B27 positives and patients who did not have 
psoriasis were considered separately. HLA B27 positive patients in this group 
had frequently experienced acute anterior uveitis. It seems possible that the 
disease in such males is the result of combined predisposition to ankylosing 
spondylitis and psoriatic arthropathy. Hip arthropathy was frequently present in 
males with spinal rigidity. The associations observed confirm that AS is a 
heterogenous group of diseases. The term "syndrome" may be suitable for such a 
heterogenous group, and we prefer the term "Bechterew's syndrome" as the name of 
this group. When these new findings are added to the previous observations that 
acute anterior uveitis probably is a clinical, sex-influenced characteristic of 
HLA B27 positive Bechterew's syndrome, that HLA B27 negative patients with 
Bechterew's syndrome frequently had psoriasis and were HLA B13 and B17 negative, 
and that psoriasis was frequent in HLA B27 positive patients as well, we 
tentatively conclude that different and interacting genetic mechanisms may be 
involved in the etiology of Bechterew's syndrome.