Classification criteria for Sjögren's syndrome: a revised version of the European criteria proposed by the American-European Consensus Group

Abstract

Classification criteria for Sjögren's syndrome (SS) were developed and validated between 1989 and 1996 by the European Study Group on Classification Criteria for SS, and broadly accepted. These have been re-examined by consensus group members, who have introduced some modifications, more clearly defined the rules for classifying patients with primary or secondary SS, and provided more precise exclusion criteria.

Figure 1

Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of the classification criteria set for SS.

Figure 2

Classification tree performance of the classification criteria for SS. Schematic representation of the classification tree for the classification of primary SS. Within each circle the number of patients with primary SS (upper value) and the number of controls without SS (lower value) are reported. The boxes show the numbers of subjects who could be classified either as having SS or not having SS (No SS). The variable used in each node of the tree to discriminate between patients and controls is reported beneath the circles. Following the entire sequence allowed us to classify correctly 73/76 patients with primary SS (sensitivity 96.1%) and 98/104 disease controls (specificity 94.2%).