The Board found that the veteran's current back disability, ankylosing spondylitis, was not incurred in or aggravated by active service and denied his claim for service connection.
The deciding factor: VA medical opinions indicated that the veteran's current back disability is unrelated to a service injury, while the veteran provided an opinion from a private physician linking it to a service injury.
- Claimed conditions
- Ankylosing Spondylitis
- How they argued it
- Reopened with new and material evidence
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 13, 2003
- Citation
- 0304647
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,374 · Granted: 19% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 0304647.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for a rating in excess of 10 percent for ankylosing spondylitis and entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployment (TDIU) due to service-connected disabilities, as there was no evidence that his service-connected conditions prevented him from securing or following substantially gainful employment.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome as there is no current diagnosis of CFS at any time during or contemporaneous to the pendency of the Veteran's appeal. The medical evidence does not support his claim of service connection for CFS.
- Dismissed
The Board dismissed the Veteran's appeal for service connection of a left spontaneous pneumothorax as his claim was already granted in a prior rating decision. The issues of service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder and ankylosing spondylitis are remanded.
- Granted
The Board has granted reopening of the claim for service connection for a low back disability, but denied the claim itself due to lack of evidence linking the current condition to service.
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