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The latest set of classification criteria was published in the fall of 2016 and is endorsed by both the American College of Rheumatology and the European League Against Rheumatism and is known as the 2016 ACR-EULAR classification criteria. Prior to this, there were two classification criteria in use: the 2002 American European Consensus Group classification criteria and the 2012 ACR classification criteria.

What are classification criteria used for?
Classification criteria are used in clinical trials to ensure that the participating patient population has the disease under study. As a result, classification criteria are much stricter than diagnostic criteria. This means that although patients may have been diagnosed with a disease, they still may not meet the inclusion criteria for a given study.

This international effort was led by Caroline Shiboski, DDS, PhD ,MPH and Stephen Shiboski, PhD, of the University of California San Francisco with other international leaders in Sjögren’s and in conjunction with the International Sjögren’s Syndrome Criteria Working Group.

The criteria was published in both Arthritis & Rheumatology and the Annals of Rheumatic Disease. The full article published in Arthritis & Rheumatology is accessible online at no cost: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5650478/pdf/nihms813745.pdf

To learn more about the specifics of the ACR-EULAR 2016 classification criteria for Sjögren’s, visit our Diagnosing Sjögren's  for Healthcare Providers page.