TY - JOUR T1 - Drs. Singh and Magrey reply JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol SP - 1150 LP - 1150 DO - 10.3899/jrheum.200048 VL - 47 IS - 7 AU - MARINA N. MAGREY AU - DILPREET KAUR SINGH Y1 - 2020/07/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/47/7/1150.2.abstract N2 - To the Editor:We thank Paras Karmacharya and colleagues for their letter to the editor1, which furthers the discussion about racial differences in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). They highlight that the reported prevalence of AS in African Americans of 8% in our study is low2. At present the true prevalence of AS in African Americans in the USA is unknown. Based on the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009–2010 survey, the overall prevalence estimates of axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) using the European Spondylarthropathy Study Group criteria is 0.9% in non-Hispanic blacks between the ages of 20 and 69 years3,4, but Karmacharya and colleagues acknowledged that estimates could be unreliable. The number of African Americans was too low to make any definite estimates.We acknowledge that healthcare databases have substantial variation in estimates of prevalence and incidence of chronic conditions, which limits their interpretability and utility.The true prevalence of AS in African Americans may have been underestimated … Address correspondence to Dr. D.K. Singh, Case Western Reserve University, MetroHealth Medical Center, Division of Rheumatology, 2500 MetroHealth Drive, Cleveland, Ohio 44109, USA. E-mail: dilpreetsinghmd{at}gmail.com ER -