New from PubMed:

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) has the longest diagnosis delay among the rheumatological diseases, yet it is a chronic, progressive, and disabling disease. Researchers in Istanbul, Turkey sought to uncover possible reasons in the delay of an AS diagnosis in order to developed more effective diagnostic criteria for the disease. Diagnosis delay was defined as the interval between a patient’s first spondiloarthropathic symptom and a correct diagnosis of AS. Of the 111 AS patients enrolled in the study, the average diagnosis delay was 6.05 +/- 5.08 years. The average age of patients at the onset of AS symptoms was 23.18 +/- 9.59 years, and the average age at diagnosis was 27.88 +/- 11.63 years. Within the AS patient population, diagnosis delay was considerably longer for HLA B27 (-) AS patients than for HLA B27(+) patients. AS patients with inflammatory back pain at disease onset also had a considerably shorter diagnosis delay. A positive family history significantly lowered the diagnosis delay over patients with a negative family history as well. Based on these findings, researchers determined that inflammatory back pain should be the primary screening criterion of AS for primary care physicians, and HLA B27 and family history should also be important criteria in the screening process.

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