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Background/objectives The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR)/American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 2019 classification criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus system showed high specificity, while attaining also high sensitivity. We hereby analysed the performance of the individual criteria items and their contribution to the overall performance of the criteria. Methods We combined the EULAR/ACR derivation and validation cohorts for a total of 1197 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and n=1074 non-SLE patients with a variety of conditions mimicking SLE, such as other autoimmune diseases, and calculated the sensitivity and specificity for antinuclear antibodies (ANA) and the 23 specific criteria items. We also tested performance omitting the EULAR/ACR criteria attribution rule, which defines that items are only counted if not more likely explained by a cause other than SLE. Results Positive ANA, the new entry criterion, was 99.5% sensitive, but only 19.4% specific, against a non-SLE population that included other inflammatory rheumatic, infectious, malignant and metabolic diseases. The specific criteria items were highly variable in sensitivity (from 0.42% for delirium and 1.84% for psychosis to 75.6% for antibodies to double-stranded DNA), but their specificity was uniformly high, with low C3 or C4 (83.0%) and leucopenia 80% for all items, explaining the higher overall specificity of the criteria set. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

Objectives The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR)/American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 2019 Classification Criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have been validated with high sensitivity and specificity. We evaluated the performance of the new criteria with regard to disease duration, sex and race/ethnicity, and compared its performance against the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) 2012 and ACR 1982/1997 criteria. Methods Twenty-one SLE centres from 16 countries submitted SLE cases and mimicking controls to form the validation cohort. The sensitivity and specificity of the EULAR/ACR 2019, SLICC 2012 and ACR 1982/1997 criteria were evaluated. Results The cohort consisted of female (n=1098), male (n=172), Asian (n=118), black (n=68), Hispanic (n=124) and white (n=941) patients; with an SLE duration of 1 to

Background: EULAR/ACR 2019 SLE Classification Criteria were validated in an international cohort. Objectives: To evaluate performance characteristics of SLE classification systems in sex, race/ethnicity, and disease duration subsets. Methods: Sensitivity and specificity of the EULAR/ACR 2019, SLICC 2012 and ACR 1982/1997 criteria were evaluated in the validation cohort. Results: The cohort consisted of female (n=1098), male (n=172), Asian (n=118), Black (n=68), Hispanic (n=124) and White (n=941) patients ; and patients with an SLE duration of 1-3 years (n=196), 3-5 years (n=157), and ≥5 years (n=879). Among patients with 1-3 years disease duration, the EULAR/ACR criteria had better sensitivity than the ACR criteria (97% (95%CI 92-99%) vs 81% (95%CI 72-88%). The new criteria performed well in men (sensitivity 93%, specificity 96%) and women (sensitivity 97%, specificity 94%). The new criteria had better sensitivity than the ACR criteria in White (95% vs 83%), Hispanic (100% vs 86%) and Asian patients (97% vs 77%). Conclusion: The EULAR/ACR 2019 criteria perform well in patients with early disease, and across sexes and ethnicities.

Objective To develop new classification criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) jointly supported by the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) and the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). Methods This international initiative had four phases. (1) Evaluation of antinuclear antibody (ANA) as an entry criterion through systematic review and meta-regression of the literature and criteria generation through an international Delphi exercise, an early patient cohort and a patient survey. (2) Criteria reduction by Delphi and nominal group technique exercises. (3) Criteria definition and weighting based on criterion performance and on results of a multi-criteria decision analysis. (4) Refinement of weights and threshold scores in a new derivation cohort of 1001 subjects and validation compared with previous criteria in a new validation cohort of 1270 subjects. Results The 2019 EULAR/ACR classification criteria for SLE include positive ANA at least once as obligatory entry criterion; followed by additive weighted criteria grouped in seven clinical (constitutional, haematological, neuropsychiatric, mucocutaneous, serosal, musculoskeletal, renal) and three immunological (antiphospholipid antibodies, complement proteins, SLE-specific antibodies) domains, and weighted from 2 to 10. Patients accumulating ≥10 points are classified. In the validation cohort, the new criteria had a sensitivity of 96.1% and specificity of 93.4%, compared with 82.8% sensitivity and 93.4% specificity of the ACR 1997 and 96.7% sensitivity and 83.7% specificity of the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics 2012 criteria. Conclusion These new classification criteria were developed using rigorous methodology with multidisciplinary and international input, and have excellent sensitivity and specificity. Use of ANA entry criterion, hierarchically clustered and weighted criteria reflect current thinking about SLE and provide an improved foundation for SLE research. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

Background/Purpose: Correct classification of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is critical for clinical trials and clinical and translational science. The ACR 1997 criteria were criticized for their suboptimal sensitivity. The Systemic Lupus International Cooperating Clinics (SLICC) 2012 criteria increased sensitivity, but at the price of reduced specificity. This and further advances in the field led to the current four phase SLE criteria project. Following an item generation phase and item reduction via a Delphi and a nominal group exercise (1), the provisional criteria were derived from a multicriteria decision analysis exercise (2). These criteria were hence simplified and validated in a large international cohort. Methods: A large international cohort of 2, 321 patients was collected from 23 SLE expert centers, contributing up to 100 patients with SLE and with non-SLE, each. Diagnoses were verified by 3 independent reviewers for 1, 193 SLE and 1, 059 non- SLE patients. 501 randomly selected SLE and 500 non-SLE patients formed the derivation cohort. All other patients with confirmed SLE or non-SLE diagnosis formed the validation cohort. Sensitivity and specificity were compared to the ACR 1997 and the SLICC 2012 criteria. Results: The criteria were fine-tuned and simplified, using ANA of ≥1:80 as entry criterion and a classification threshold of 10. Items can only be counted for classification if there is no more likely cause, and at least one clinical item must be present.