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In 1982, the ACR developed classification criteria for the identification of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) for use in research. The ACR updated these criteria in 1997, and in 2012, the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) group developed an additional set of classification criteria.
In 2014, in an attempt to establish and refine even more sensitive, evidence-based SLE classification criteria, the ACR and the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) assembled a 12-member steering committee incorporating expertise from rheumatology providers around the world. A new study published in Arthritis Care & Research in April 2018 represents a significant step in that process.1
“We were trying to identify clinical signs and lab abnormalities that are present in a large portion of SLE patients, but are also very specific to SLE. The goal is to identify patients with a high likelihood of SLE, as opposed to another disease,” says corresponding author Sara Tedeschi, MD, MPH, a rheumatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and an instructor at Harvard Medical School.