Reliability of the diagnosis of rheumatic conditions at the primary health care level.

To assess the reliability of the diagnosis given to rheumatic disease patients at the primary care level, the clinical records of 612 patients at the outpatient clinic of rheumatology of the main General Hospital in Alicante (Spain) were studied.The accuracy indices (sensitivity, specificity), the predictive values of tentative diagnosis made by the referring physicians and the degree of agreement (Kappa statistics) with the final diagnoses made...