Advances in SLE classification criteria

Martin Aringer; Karen Costenbader; Thomas Dörner; Sindhu R Johnson

doi:10.1016/j.jaut.2022.102845

Advances in SLE classification criteria

J Autoimmun. 2022 Oct:132:102845. doi: 10.1016/j.jaut.2022.102845. Epub 2022 Jun 17.

Authors

Martin Aringer¹, Karen Costenbader², Thomas Dörner³, Sindhu R Johnson⁴

Affiliations

¹ Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine III, and University Center for Autoimmune and Rheumatic Entities (UCARE). University Medical Center and Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus at the TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany. Electronic address: martin.aringer@uniklinikum-dresden.de.
² Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Deutsches Rheumaforschungszentrum (DRFZ), Berlin, Germany.
⁴ Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Toronto Western Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital; Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

PMID: 35725680
DOI: 10.1016/j.jaut.2022.102845

Abstract

This year, the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 1982 classification criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) celebrate their 40th anniversary. From this start, the quest for optimal SLE criteria has led to the 1997 ACR update, the 2012 publication of the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) criteria, and, in 2019, the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR)/ACR classification criteria. The latter have since been externally validated in more than two dozen studies and have become the gold standard inclusion criterion of SLE clinical trials. This comprehensive review attempts to follow the evolving success story of SLE classification, highlighting relevant decisions and their rationale, and discussing consequences for the way SLE is defined and managed.

Keywords: Classification criteria; Clinical trials; Sensitivity; Specificity; Systemic lupus erythematosus.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Humans
Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic* / diagnosis
Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic* / therapy
Rheumatic Diseases*
Rheumatology*
United States