The 2013 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism Classification Criteria for Systemic Sclerosis Could Classify Systemic Sclerosis Patients at Earlier Stage: Data from a Chinese EUSTAR Center

ObjectivesTo evaluate the performance of the 2013 ACR/EULAR classification criteria for systemic sclerosis (SSc) in clinical practice in a Chinese patient cohort, and to compare outcomes with the 1980 ACR criteria.MethodsPatients clinically diagnosed with SSc between September 2013 and May 2015 were prospectively recruited from the EUSTAR database of the Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Diagnosis of SSc was based on the evaluation of three experienced rheumatologists. Patients diagnosed with other connective tissue diseases were recruited as disease controls. The 1980 ACR and 2013 ACR/EULAR criteria were applied to the cohort, and patients who fulfilled the criteria were classified as definite SSc patients. Sensitivity and specificity were analyzed for the 2013 and 1980 criteria.ResultsA total of 143 SSc patients and 87 patients with other connective diseases were recruited. 41 (28.7%) and 102 (71.3%) cases were diffuse cutaneous SSc and limited cutaneous SSc, respectively. Although the sensitivity of the 2013 criteria (94.4%) exceeded the 1980 criteria (72.7%) (PConclusionsRelative to the 1980 ACR criteria, in Chinese SSc patients the new 2013 ACR/EULAR criteria had similar specificity and higher sensitivity, especially for patients with mild skin thickening or prominent microvascular diseases.