A recent study published in the journal, Rheumatology, concludes that general practitioners have, "inconsistencies in their perceptions and approach to the diagnosis and management of AS."

The primary difficulty was doctors identifying inflammatory back pain, which can be indicative of AS, as compared to mechanical back pain, which can be back pain related to age-related degenerative disk and facet processes and muscle- or ligament-related injuries.

Speaking at the Denver Spondylitis Educational Seminar on June 21, 2008, Dr. Michael Weisman stated that the key to diagnosing AS is understanding and identifying inflammatory back pain. Inflammatory back pain, said Dr. Weisman, is back pain that awakens you in the middle of the night, improves with exercise and walking throughout the day, is worse in the morning and is associated with morning stiffness, and sometimes alternates from buttock to buttock.

In the study, entitled, "Recognition of inflammatory back pain and ankylosing spondylitis in primary care", the researchers used a survey to find that only 5% of general practitioners (GPs) could identify all eight features known to be indicative of inflammatory back pain (IBP), 78% between four and eight and 17% identified less than four features. In addition, general practitioners "had a range of views regarding the utility of a positive family history, HLA-B27, use of X-ray and physiotherapy in patients with suspected IBP. GPs awareness of the associated features of [spondylitis] was low. There were inconsistencies in the use of diagnostic tests and management of AS."

Indeed, there is much work to be done in educating not only the public, but also some medical professionals regarding ankylosing spondylitis. Here at SAA, for example, earlier this year we sent out a pilot mailing to hundreds of general practitioners all over the US that contained our educational brochures on the disease. We are also in the process of exploring a larger scale educational program for general practitioners and primary care physicians.

Remember, we encourage patients to bring our vetted educational materials to appointments to share with their doctor.

You can click here to read the study abstract.

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