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The sensitivity of the 1971 preliminary criteria for the classification of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) was 90% according to Cohen et a1 (l), who assembled those criteria. This high degree of sensitivity was not found by other investigators (2-6). The 1982 revised criteria proposed by Tan et al (7) showed a 96% sensitivity among their patients.

In a recent work, Levin et a1 (8) compared the 1971 and ithe 1982 American Rheumatism Association (ARA) criteria in 156 of their patients and found 88% sensitivity with the 1971 preliminary criteria and 91% with the 1982 revised criteria. The increased sensitivity was attributed to the addition of the fluorescent antinuclear antibody (FANA) test as a criterion, whereas lowering the value required for fulfilling the proteinuria criterion did not affect sensitivity. We compared the 2 criteria as did Levin et a1 (8). In 135 of our SLE patients, we found 81% sensitivity using the 1971 …