Evaluation of the fibromyalgia diagnostic screen in clinical practice

Fibromyalgia (FM) is challenging to diagnose, especially in primary care settings. The Fibromyalgia Diagnostic Screen was developed to facilitate the diagnosis of FM in clinical practice. The objectives of this study were to assess the performance of the Fibromyalgia Diagnostic Screen in primary care and specialty clinics, using the 1990 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) diagnostic criteria as the gold standard, and comparing the Fibromyalgia Diagnostic Screen with the London Fibromyalgia Epidemiology Study Screening Questionnaire (LFESSQ) and the modified 2010 ACR Fibromyalgia Diagnostic Criteria (ACR-FDC).

This multicenter, cross-sectional study included 150 adult chronic pain patients who underwent a physician-administered structured history and physical exam and completed the Fibromyalgia Diagnostic Screen, the LFESSQ and the modified ACR-FDC. The analyses determined the predictive ability of the Fibromyalgia Diagnostic Screen for FM.

Item-level analyses provided support for the response categories and predictive ability of most of the Fibromyalgia Diagnostic Screen items. Additionally, the evaluation of the Fibromyalgia Diagnostic Screen scoring models demonstrated the greatest accuracy in predicting an FM diagnosis with a combination of patient items and clinician items that included an abbreviated tender point exam (sensitivity 0.68, specificity, 0.82). Sensitivity of the modified ACR-FDC and the LFESSQ was 0.87 and 0.86, respectively, with specificity 0.62 and 0.49, respectively.

The Fibromyalgia Diagnostic Screen is a useful new clinical tool to aid in the evaluation of FM in clinical practice.