How good is the agreement between clinical diagnoses and classification criteria fulfilment in axial spondyloarthritis? Results from the SPARTAKUS cohort.

Elisabet LindqvistTor OlofssonAnna JöudMats GeijerJohan Karlsson WallmanElisabeth Mogard
Published in: Scandinavian journal of rheumatology (2022)
We found an overall good concordance between clinical axSpA diagnoses and classification criteria fulfilment, with 83% fulfilling ASAS axSpA and/or mNY criteria. Regarding axSpA subtypes, the concordance was weaker, and although the ICD-10 code for AS correctly identified patients meeting mNY criteria in 71% of cases, one-third of mNY-positive patients lacked an AS diagnosis. Moreover, clinical u-axSpA diagnoses could not serve as a proxy to identify nr-axSpA, highlighting the importance of thorough classification in research on axSpA subtypes.