Failure to diagnose a rheumatic condition that can cause life-long back pain and give patients appropriate care is costing society dear, the Government will be told today.
Failure to diagnose a rheumatic condition that can cause life-long back pain and give patients appropriate care is costing society dear, the Government will be told today. Despite widespread agreement on the best approach to diagnosing and managing Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), many UK patients are not getting the specialist services they need. This is often because GPs confuse the symptoms with more common kinds of back pain. Dr Helena Marzo-Ortega, from the University of Leeds and the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, and colleagues are now lobbying Parliament to improve access to essential tests - to confirm doctors' suspicions of AS - as well as therapies that could limit disease damage and improve patients' mobility. "Many people can go for eight or ten years before their back pain is correctly diagnosed as AS," Dr Marzo-Ortega said. "GPs are often unable to distinguish the signs of this inflammatory disorder from other more common kinds of spinal pain. This is why it is vital that people with suspected AS are referred to a specialist rheumatologist." Ankylosing Spondylitis affects between two and five adults in every 1000.
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