Psoriatic arthritis screening tools

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is an inflammatory arthritis associated with psoriasis, with an indolent and progressive course. A delay in diagnosis and treatment may lead to an erosive arthropathy, leading further to physical disability and deformity. To help clinicians screen for PsA, the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) has led an effort to develop and validate 3 PsA screening tools. Administration of a well designed screening tool can increase detection of PsA, help determine the prevalence of PsA in a given population, record clinical data for genotype-phenotype studies, and track response to therapy. The development and validation of these screening tools was a major focus at the GRAPPA annual meeting at Boston in September 2007; we summarize that portion of the meeting.