Criteria for ankylosing spondylitis: facts and fallacies.
Weaknesses in existing clinical and radiological criteria for diagnosing ankylosing spondylitis are highlighted and suggestions for improvement made. It is suggested that a major stride forward would be to incorporate a system of probability weighting for individual criteria. This would not only allow diagnosis to be expressed in terms of statistical confidence but would also allow diagnosis to be codified. This latter could facilitate the interpretation of data.
Moll
J M
JM
D001416:Back Pain / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D010808:Physical Examination; D011336:Probability; D011859:Radiography; D012446:Sacroiliac Joint / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013167:Spondylitis, Ankylosing / Q000175:diagnosis*