Page 24 - Recognizing axial spondyloarthritis - Janneke de Winter

CHAPTER TWO
recorded every 3 months. The treating physician recorded the presence (past or present) of psoriasis, uveitis, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) according to the definition of the ASAS criteria (18). A family history of SpA was defined as at least 1 first or second degree family member with AS, psoriasis, IBD, reactive arthritis or uveitis. Enthesitis and dactylitis were scored clinically by the treating physician. Active inflammatory back pain (IBP) was defined as pain at night at least 1 time a week and/or an average morning stiffness of at least 30 minutes in the past week. Patients were treated according to standard clinical patient care, hence all therapies were allowed. For the current study, we used data of the patients’ first visit to the SpA outpatient clinic.
Statistical analysis
Categorical data are presented as numbers (%), continuous data as mean (SD) or as median (interquartile range, IQR) as appropriate. We used χ2 test for categorical data and Mann-Whitney U or unpaired T test for continuous data. Statistical tests were 2-sided, and p-values less than 0.05 were considered significant.
Figure 1. Flow chart of patients included in the cohort according to the fulfilment of the ASAS criteria
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