Low specificity but high sensitivity of inflammatory back pain criteria in rheumatology settings in Europe: confirmation of findings from a German cohort study

Inflammatory back pain (IBP) is considered so essential in the axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) diagnostic process that it is recommended as referral parameter in primary care.1–3 However, axSpA patients without IBP do exist as well as patients with IBP that do not have an axSpA diagnosis, leaving IBP to be a strong and useful feature for recognising axSpA but not pathognomonic.4 5 A recent study in German chronic back pain patients with a...