title: Characteristics of patients with spondyloarthritis followed in rheumatology units in Spain. emAR II study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the main demographic and clinical features of patients with spondyloarthropaties in Spain.
  
  
  METHODS
  Review of randomized clinical charts of patients with spondyloarthropaties with at least one visit to the rheumatologist in the previous two years. Information was collected on demographic and clinical data (duration of illness, diagnostic category, disease activity, extrarticular manifestations, comorbidity and work disability).
  
  
  RESULTS
  1,168 patients were included in the study. Their median age was 49.2 years (39.7-60.5), 68.0% were males, and median time of disease was 105.1 month (48.4-192.5). The diagnoses and clinical data such as the BASDAI were reported only in 34,0% of the patients. The most widely used measure of metrology, the Schober test, was missing in 37.7% of the clinical charts. The patients included had the following diagnoses: Ankylosing spondylitis (n = 629, 55.2%), Psoriatic arthritis (n= 253, 22.2%), Undifferentiated spondyloarthritis (n = 184, 16.1%), Arthritis associated to Inflammatory bowel disease (n= 50, 4.4%), and Reactive arthritis (n= 16, 1.4%). The most common extraarticular manifestations were psoriasis (20.8%), anterior uveitis (19.4%), and enthesitis (16.9%). Some kind of work disability was reported in 8.3% of the patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with spondyloarthropaties in Spain do not differ as a whole from other published studies, except for Undifferentiated Spondyloarthritis, which was more likely in our patients than in other studies. The quality of the records of activity in the clinical charts could be improved.
authors.affiliation: Sección de Reumatología, Hospital Clínico Virgen de la Victoria, Málaga, España. casalssanchez@gmail.com
authors.forename: José Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Casals-Sánchez
authors.forename: María Jesús
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: García De Yébenes Prous
authors.forename: Miguel Ángel
authors.initials: MÁ
authors.lastname: Descalzo Gallego
authors.forename: Juan Manuel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Barrio Olmos
authors.forename: Loreto
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Carmona Ortells
authors.forename: Cesar
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hernández García
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015897:Comorbidity; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012219:Rheumatology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018582:Sick Leave; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D025242:Spondylarthropathies / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy