Delayed diagnosis can be a severe problem with spondylitis. The ASAS group has developed new criteria for diagnosing "axial SpA that include patients without radiographic sacroiliitis."

The authors of the study do conclude, "The candidate criteria need to be validated in an independent international study."

The criteria for diagnosing axial spondyloarthritis without x-ray involvement of the SI joints - the hallmark of the disease - include: "the presence of sacroiliitis by radiography or by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plus at least one SpA feature ("imaging arm") or the presence of HLA-B27 plus at least two SpA features ("clinical arm")."

To read part one of the study abstract click here. Part II can be found here.

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