According to the CDC’s 2012 NHANES study, axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) – an inflammatory rheumatic disease – affects roughly 3.2 million adults in the U.S. alone, making it more common than rheumatoid arthritis. Despite this reality, axSpA is not always well understood by the general public or even medical professionals.
AxSpA is often difficult to diagnose partly because its most common symptom, back pain, is a pervasive patient complaint. This partially explains why it can take up to 10 years to obtain the correct diagnosis. One helpful clue, however is the presence of inflammatory back pain.
Below we present axSpA resources specifically geared to Primary Care Physicians and other health care professionals working in the primary care setting.