A glance into the future of diagnosis and treatment of spondyloarthritis.

The last two decades have seen major developments in the field of spondyloarthritis (SpA), but there are still important unmet needs to address. In the future, we envisage important advances in the diagnosis and treatment of SpA. In the diagnosis of SpA, the use of online and social media tools will increase awareness of the disease and facilitate the referral of patients to rheumatology clinics. In addition, more specific diagnostic tests will be available, especially advanced imaging methods and new biomarkers. This will allow most patients to be diagnosed at an early stage of the disease. In the treatment of SpA, an increasing number of novel treatment targets can be expected, most of which will be directed against intracellular enzymes. We hope to see more strategy trials shaping treatment pathways in SpA and accommodating principals of precision medicine. Approved treatment options will be available for both axial and peripheral SpA. We also hope to intervene not only at the inflammation level but also at the level of underlying immunological processes that might be associated with a higher probability of long-standing remission if not a cure. Finally, artificial intelligence techniques will allow for the analysis of large-scale data to answer relevant research questions for the diagnosis and management of patients with SpA.

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© The Author(s), 2022.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Competing interests: The Associate Editor of Therapeutic Advances in Musculoskeletal Disease (DP) is an author of this paper, therefore, the peer review process was managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor was not involved in the decision-making process. The authors declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: VNC received research support from AbbVie, Novartis and Pfizer; consulting fees from AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Moonlake, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer and UCB; speaker fees from AbbVie, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, MSD, Janssen, Novartis, Pfizer and UCB. JE received research support from AbbVie, Novartis and Pfizer; consulting fees from Eli Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer and UCB. DP received research support from AbbVie, Eli Lilly, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer; consulting fees from AbbVie, BIOCAD, Eli Lilly, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, MSD, Moonlake, Novartis, Pfizer, Samsung Bioepis and UCB; speaker fees from AbbVie, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer and UCB.