Imaging of Spine Disease: Look to MRI, says EULAR

MedPage Today—June 27, 2015

MedPage Today's Senior Staff Writer, Nancy Walsh reports that the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) has released a new set of recommendations on imaging for the diagnosis and monitoring of patients with spondyloarthritis (SpA), emphasizing the importance of MRI for early diagnosis.

Walsh notes that this recommendation comes as a result of treatment advancements and a better understanding of the importance of early intervention. According to Sergio Schwartzman, MD, "The reason why MRI has become such an important tool for this group of diseases is that when we had only x-rays for diagnosis we were very late in making the diagnosis. The average time to make the diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis was close to a decade."

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