American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) Diagnostic and Classification Criteria for Primary Systemic Vasculitis

Overview

About this study

Vasculitis is group of diseases where inflammation of blood vessels is the common feature. Patients typically present with fever, fatigue, weakness and muscle and joint aches. These symptoms are very common among many different diseases, not just vasculitis. A clustering of other symptoms, physical examination findings, blood tests, radiology and biopsy help make the diagnosis. There are currently no criteria to help doctors make a diagnosis of vasculitis when a patient presents with these non specific symptoms and they are reliant on previous experience and disease definitions. One of the aims of this project is to develop diagnostic criteria for the primary systemic vasculitides (granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's), microscopic polyangiitis, Churg Strauss syndrome, polyarteritis nodosa, giant cell arteritis, Takayasu arteritis). We, the investigators, will do this by studying a large group of patients with vasculitis and comparing them to a large group of patients that present in a similar way, but do not have vasculitis. By comparing the 2 groups we will create a list of items to differentiate between vasculitis and 'vasculitis mimics'. We also aim to update the current classification criteria. Classification criteria are used to group patients into different types of vasculitis, once a diagnosis of vasculitis has been made, and are useful for studying patients in clinical trials with similar or identical diseases. The current classification criteria (American college of Rheumatology 1990 criteria) were developed 20 years ago, before the availability of some important diagnostic tests (e.g. antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies [ANCA]), and are now not consistent with some of the current disease definitions. Therefore to progress future research in vasculitis, it is important that the classification criteria are updated. We will recruit 260 patients with each of the 6 types of vasculitis and compare them with 1300 controls (patients with the 5 other types of vasculitis), in order to determine the optimal combination of symptoms, signs and investigations that classify each person into the appropriate group.

Participation eligibility

Participant eligibility includes age, gender, type and stage of disease, and previous treatments or health concerns. Guidelines differ from study to study, and identify who can or cannot participate. There is no guarantee that every individual who qualifies and wants to participate in a trial will be enrolled. Contact the study team to discuss study eligibility and potential participation.

Inclusion Criteria for Classification criteria:

  1. Adult patients aged >18 years. There is no upper age limit.
  2. Ability to give informed consent. If the patient is unable to give informed consent as a result of death or physical incapacity, then informed assent from next of kin.
  3. Presumed diagnosis of a primary systemic vasculitis.

Exclusion criteria for classification criteria:

  1. Patients < 18 years of age.
  2. Inability to provide informed consent.
  3. Hepatitis B or C
  4. Co-morbidities that explain the clinical symptoms and signs on which the diagnosis of vasculitis is made. E.g. infection, tumour, other inflammatory condition, etc.

Inclusion criteria for diagnostic criteria:

  1. Adult patients aged >18 years. There is no upper age limit.
  2. Ability to give informed consent. If the patient is unable to give informed consent as a result of death or physical incapacity, then informed assent from next of kin.
  3. Suspected diagnosis of a primary systemic vasculitis

Inclusion criteria for controls group for diagnostic criteria:

  1. Adult patients aged >18 years. There is no upper age limit.
  2. Ability to give informed consent. If the patient is unable to give informed consent as a result of death or physical incapacity, then informed assent from next of kin.
  3. Patients presenting to secondary care with one of the following clinical presentations: I.Multi-system disease. Presentation of disease with at least 2 organs involved. II.Pulmonary-renal syndrome. Defined as haemoptysis / pulmonary haemorrhage with acute renal impairment. III.Acute renal failure IV.Acute respiratory distress. V.Chronic upper airways symptoms and signs. VI.Inflammatory polyarthritis. VII.Fever of unknown origin. VIII.Acute or chronic abdominal pain IX.Hypertension. X.Referred to secondary care with suspicion of vasculitis but confirmed not to have vasculitis. XII.New onset headache. XIII.Jaw or tongue pain. XIV.Sudden visual loss. XV.Limb claudication. XVI.Aortic aneurysm >5cm.

Exclusion Criteria for diagnostic criteria:

  1. Patients under the age of 18
  2. Patient or next of kin unable or unwilling to provide informed consent or assent.

Participating Mayo Clinic locations

Study statuses change often. Please contact the study team for the most up-to-date information regarding possible participation.

Mayo Clinic Location Status

Rochester, Minn.

Mayo Clinic principal investigator

Eric Matteson, M.D.

Closed for enrollment

More information

Publications

  • RELEVANCE TO THE CLINICIAN: Clinicians already know that not all patients who are diagnosed with rheumatic diseases really have them. Moreover, determining which patients have improved and by how much is also difficult. Classification criteria allow clinical researchers to recruit patients with similar diseases (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus) into studies. Response criteria help to determine whether treatments really work, i.e., whether they actually produce clinically important improvement. As the science of clinical research advances, we must update our standards for considering classification and response criteria. In this editorial, members of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Subcommittee on Classification and Response Criteria describe the purpose of criteria sets, their development and validation, and the role of the ACR in adopting them. Read More on PubMed
  • To test the usefulness of the Chapel Hill nomenclature, supplemented with surrogate parameters, as diagnostic criteria for primary vasculitides. Read More on PubMed
  • The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) established criteria to discriminate among patients with seven types of vasculitis. Although designated as "classification criteria" for research, these criteria are often used for diagnosis. Read More on PubMed
  • We have discussed methodological and statistical considerations in developing disease classification and assessment criteria. In choosing cases with disease and nondisease controls, classification criteria should be developed with an eye toward face, content and construct validity, and toward their ultimate applicability. The validity of disease criteria should be tested in a patient sample different from the one used to develop the criteria. Several analytic approaches are available to reduce the candidate diagnostic elements to those that will define the presence of disease. Methodological issues in the assessment of disease severity, activity or damage are similar to those faced in criteria development studies, although the analytic concerns are different and the options more varied. Read More on PubMed
  • The following are some of the conclusions and proposals made at the Chapel Hill Consensus Conference on the Nomenclature of Systemic Vasculitis. 1. Although not a prerequisite component of the definitions, patient age is recognized as a useful discriminator between Takayasu arteritis and giant cell (temporal) arteritis. 2. The name "polyarteritis nodosa," or alternatively, the name "classic polyarteritis nodosa," is restricted to disease in which there is arteritis in medium-sized and small arteries without involvement of smaller vessels. Therefore, patients with vasculitis affecting arterioles, venules, or capillaries, including glomerular capillaries (i.e., with glomerulonephritis), are excluded from this diagnostic category. 3. The name "Wegener's granulomatosis" is restricted to patients with granulomatous inflammation. Patients with exclusively nongranulomatous small vessel vasculitis involving the upper or lower respiratory tract (e.g., alveolar capillaritis) fall into the category of microscopic polyangiitis (microscopic polyarteritis). 4. The term "hypersensitivity vasculitis" is not used. Most patients who would have been given this diagnosis fall into the category of microscopic polyangiitis (microscopic polyarteritis) or cutaneous leukocytoclastic angiitis. 5. The name "microscopic polyangiitis," or alternatively, "microscopic polyarteritis," connotes pauci-immune (i.e., few or no immune deposits) necrotizing vasculitis affecting small vessels, with or without involvement of medium-sized arteries. Cryoglobulinemic vasculitis, Henoch-Schönlein purpura, and other forms of immune complex-mediated small vessel vasculitis must be ruled out to make this diagnosis. 6. The name "cutaneous leukocytoclastic angiitis" is restricted to vasculitis in the skin without involvement of vessels in any other organ. 7. Mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome must be present to make a diagnosis of Kawasaki disease.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS) Read More on PubMed

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