What is the chances my next gen will be suffering from PsA or any HLA B27 associated autoimmune problems?
One in four for PsA
HLA B27 is a crap shoot. Wierdly having a positive test doesn't mean anything unless you have the disease. Drives a mathematician nuts.
However there is a new disease afoot called "Nonradiographic Axial Spondyloarthritis" which has finally adopted treatment recommendations including Biologics. that eliminate a lot of the requirements including "family History" A lot of PsA is actually Axial Spondyloarthritis
True. Even mine is juvenile axial PsA. With predominantly spine involvement. Till late there was a confusion of diagnosis as ankylosing spondylitis or PsA. But my diagnosis of PsA got confirmed when my DIP of fingers got involved a month back for the first time. Now I also get heel pain, but thankfully its not that much.
I have 3 adult sons in their 30s and all are healthy. Like a lot of parents, I don't think too much about the odds of them getting PsA etc. because there's not exactly much point. However I am aware that it is a genetic disease and I think they are too.
Autoimmunity generally seems to run in families, is that right? My mother had multiple sclerosis which I don't think is associated with HLA B27. But then if I think of my wider family - I can quickly identify 30 plus people whose life histories I know - there are only 2 or 3 of us who have or have had any kind of chronic disease whatsoever.
I'll be looking up HLA B 27 for sure.
Autoimmune diseases to have a tendency to run in families--women in families seem more apt to have thyroid (hypo/hyper) difficulties. I know my mother was hypothyroid. For some reason, I went from hypo (in 1997) to hyper (Graves' disease). My endo says it's rare but he's had 1-2 other patients besides me who have done that. The rheumy wasn't surprised when I told him what the endo and tests for T3, T4, free T3, free T4 and thyroid antibodies said.
My rheumy says I had a greater tendency toward developing PsA in part because I've had psoriasis for so long (since I was six years old), the fact that I already had two: psoriasis and hypothyroid and the family history of psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, other inflammatory diseases and autoimmune. I believe my disease triggered ON when my mother and grandmother died within four months of each other in 2003 and then when I had just begun to get back on my feet from that, my husband got sent to Iraq for 15 months.
I find it quite telling that my husband came home for good on November 10, 2005, and a week later, November 17, 2005, we were in my PCP's office. I was sick from November 2005 until May 2006--when I got prescribed Prednisone for a couple of months. I kept getting worse, was wrongly diagnosed with polymyalgia rheumatica, got worse than that and was finally properly diagnosed--and medicated for PsA--in 2011 or 2012.
My brother has now been diagnosed with gout in his feet, knees and elbows. He's seeing the same rheumy, but having difficulty finding a med (or meds) he can tolerate.