In many countries, many patients with joint pain have to wait for several weeks or months until their first encounter with a rheumatologist. This impedes the EULAR recommendation, that pts with early arthritis should be seen by a rheumatologist within 6 weeks.
Are there - apart from history taking and physical examination (which may be difficult for the untrained GP) - any useful screening tests to detect (or exclude) a rheumatic disease such as rheumatoid arthritis or CTD?
Dear Peter,
I think that elevation of Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) or C-reactive protein (CRP) is an important point such as the presence of anti-citrullinated antibodies or antinuclear antibodies (only if they have titer 1:320 or more).
In my hospital, patient with joint pain have to wait 7-10 days for a rheumatologic visit.
This is possible only with a good collaboration with GPs based on red flags .
Best regards,
Ciro
This is the normal test that I order to diagnose or rule out RA: RA Factor, HLA B27, CRP, ESR
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