TY - JOUR T1 - Realising early recognition of arthritis in times of increased telemedicine: the value of patient-reported swollen joints JF - Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases JO - Ann Rheum Dis DO - 10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-219513 SP - annrheumdis-2020-219513 AU - Cleo Rogier AU - Bastiaan T van Dijk AU - Elisabeth Brouwer AU - Pascal H P de Jong AU - Annette H M van der Helm-van Mil Y1 - 2021/01/07 UR - http://ard.bmj.com/content/early/2021/01/06/annrheumdis-2020-219513.abstract N2 - Early diagnosis and management of patients with inflammatory arthritis (IA) are critical to improve long-term patient outcomes. Assessment of joint swelling at joint examination is the reference of IA identification; early access clinics are constructed to promote this early recognition. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the face-to-face capacity of such services is severely reduced.1 This raises the concern of a major step backward after the important progress that has been made in the past 15 years.1 Telemedicine has recently become rapidly implemented. Although probably a valuable alternative in the management of established rheumatoid arthritis (RA), there is also the fear that this might cause delay in the speed of diagnosis.2 A symptom that evidently raises suspicion for IA during remote evaluation is the presence of patient-reported swelling. This symptom is also included in triage tools.3 4The accuracy of patient-reported swelling in comparison with joint examination has been extensively evaluated in established RA. Heterogeneous results are reported; correlation coefficients were higher when patient scored their swelling on mannequins (ρ: 0.31–0.67) than when determined with questions.5 Hypothetically, the accuracy of patient-reported joint swelling for first recognition of IA is different than for flare detection in patients with established RA. To promote evidence-based care in the era of telemedicine, we determined the accuracy of patient-reported joint swelling for actual presence of IA in persons suspected of IA … ER -