[Validation of choice of experts for the spondylarthropathy study in Lebanon].

A study of the spondylarthropathies, their recent diagnostic criteria and the prevalence of HLA B27 in these affections in Lebanon will soon be started. Experts will have to include patients, prospectively, and to classify them as having or not a spondylarthropathy, according solely to their clinical judgement. The decision of the expert is of major importance in including patients in the study. We performed a clinical evaluation of inter-observer variability to select experts according to a significant concordance in the clinical diagnosis of different rheumatic diseases, especially spondylarthropathies. Results of the evaluation are presented and discussed.