Ori Elkayam, Uri Arad and Mike Doherty A previous version was co-authored by José da Silva, Michelle Hui and Mike Doherty Diagnostic strategies in rheumatology EULAR on-line course on Rheumatic Diseases GLOBAL LEARNING OBJECTIVES Differentiate the main rheumatological patterns Generate short representations of clinical cases Use these representations as guides for a structured approach to questioning and physical examination of the patient and as a framework for final diagnosis SPECIFIC LEARNING OUTCOMES Recognise the importance of case representation, summaries and ‘illness strings’ Differentiate the main patterns in rheumatology based on appropriate questioning and physical examination Generate short summary descriptions (‘representations’) of clinical cases Use the patterns to guide questioning and clinical reasoning (two-step diagnosis) Differentiate inflammatory arthritis from osteoarthritis Recognise atypical osteoarthritis Differentiate the different causes of regional pain Characterise the most commons patterns of arthritis and their differential diagnosis Recognise fibromyalgia Differentiate the most common connective tissue diseases and vasculitis syndromes Recognise axial spondyloarthritis and the different aspects of spondyloarthritis