Online Screening Questionnaire Can Identify Patients With Axial Spondyloarthritis

TUESDAY, Dec. 2, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- A tool-based strategy for self-referral of patients with chronic back pain (CBP) is feasible for early diagnosis of axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), according to a study published online in Rheumatology Advances in Practice.Abhijeet Danve, M.D., from the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues conducted a single-center prospective study involving patients with CBP to examine the usefulness of a self-referral strategy using a clinical feature-based screening questionnaire (SQ; A-tool). The A-tool consisted of a three-question prescreen and eight-question SQ. Patients with affirmative responses on all three prescreen questions and on three or more SQ questions were eligible for a study visit. Enrolled patients underwent history, physical examination, laboratory measures, and imaging studies. The gold standard for diagnosing axSpA was the clinician's judgment.The researchers found that of the 100 enrolled patients, 86 completed all study procedures and 29 (34 percent) were diagnosed with axSpA. Overall, seven and 22 patients had ankylosing spondylitis and nonradiographic axSpA. For the individual A-tool questions for diagnosing axSpA, sensitivity and specificity ranged from 0.03 to 0.86 and 0.14 to 0.96, respectively; and the positive likelihood ratios varied from 0.84 to 1.34. Low-to-moderate agreement was seen between patient responses on the online A-tool and the corresponding physician-confirmed responses."Patients are their own best advocates," Danve said in a statement. "By giving them the means to spot warning signs sooner, this research could help shorten the road to diagnosis and bring relief to many living with back pain."One author disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry, including Novartis Pharmaceuticals, which funded the study.Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Online Screening Questionnaire Can Identify Patients With Axial Spondyloarthritis

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