The diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis may be delayed until 8 years after the appearance of the first symptoms.

-Experts include magnetic resonance imaging as very important in the correct diagnosis and early contribution of the spondylarthritis

– advances in imaging techniques and the development of biological medicinal products for the treatment of these diseases has helped patients and improve their quality of life ”

Madrid, April 2012.- the diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis after the appearance of the first symptoms may be delayed up to 8 years. The greater the more evolved diagnostic delay will be disease and there will be a further structural damage with new bone growth that is responsible for the ankylosis ”, said Dr. Xavier Juanola, Chief of the Rheumatology section of the Hospital de Bellvitge in Barcelona and one of the coordinators of the IMAS project (image in Spondylarthritis)course for training of rheumatologists of any Spain in the new image techniques applied to the spondylarthritis, which this year held its II Edition in Madrid.

According to Dr. Juanola, the MRI has meant a very important contribution in the diagnosis of the spondylarthritis. It is an imaging technique that allows a much more early diagnosis that the x-ray simple or even tomography and is much more specific and sensitive than the scan to determine the degree of inflammation ”. Also, the Coordinator of the IMAS project has added that with simple Radiology diagnostic delay for ankylosing espondilitis about 8 years and with the new classification criteria for spondylarthritis, the use of the magnetic resonance diagnosis will undoubtedly have a delay much smaller ”.

Ankylosing spondylitis is a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect any joint and over time, can lead to a permanent disability. Usually begins in young people, mainly men from the age of 20. The rheumatologists consider very important the correct diagnosis and screening to reduce the burden of the disease and reduce disability.

One of the biggest problems to identify these patients in the early stage is precisely the lack of signs and symptoms patognómicos or characteristic. For example, in ankylosing spondylitis axial main symptom is the back pain, very common in the population in general. How important is suspected in young patients, normally under 45 years old, who complain of persistent back pain ”, Marzo-Ortega, of the Rheumatology service of the hospital has explained Helena Dr. Leeds (UK), prestigious specialist with extensive experience in this field which has participated as a speaker at this meeting.

De izquierda a derecha: Dr. Eugenio de Miguel, Dr. Jordi Gratacós y Dr. Xavier Juanola.

Magnetic resonance imaging can identify injuries radiologic joint sacroiliaca up in 70-80% of cases. In the case of simple x-ray this is not possible unless the inflammatory process has been present for several years, sometimes more than one decade. The rheumatologists coincide in highlighting optimism by the introduction of biological therapies in treating both new diagnostic techniques.

The main problem in cases of late diagnosis is that treatment with biological therapies does not begin until that the inflammatory process is well underway and has been able to cause structural deformity not only of the spine but in peripheral joints such as the hips.

As explained by Dr. Marzo-Ortega the MRI is essential in early diagnosis and indirectly leads to the selection of patients who may benefit from treatment early. There are already studies which suggest that there is a correlation between the amount of inflammatory activity which is in resonance with the response to these therapies ”.

Interactive system 3.0

IMAS, launched by GRESSER (Spanish group for study of the Spondyloarthropathies of the Spanish Rheumatology society), with the collaboration of Pfizer, the project and that it has the endorsement of the Spanish society of Rheumatology in this new edition, has developed a novel format to facilitate learning and interaction of rapporteurs with the attendees. The IMAS project of this year has been presented as the main novelty a much more interactive format. New cases of discussion and new workshops are also included to make this course a lot more practical development. So each wizard has available an IPAD. As pointed out by Dr. Juanola the interactive system 3.0 allows individualization of submissions so that each attendee can, at any given time, examine in more detail a particular area of an image. This allows each participant to be the pace of submissions which, in some ways, check ”.

GRESSER

GRESSER (Spanish group for the study of the Spondylarthritis SER) is a working group of the being composed of professionals interested in the study of the Spondyloarthropathies. The Group’s activities are mainly of research in all its forms: Basic, epidemiological, methodological, clinical and therapeutic. Clínico-asistenciales and teaching activities (pre and postgraduate courses) are also of interest to the group.

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