The aim of the European Consensus Finding Study Group on autoantibodies in rheumatic diseases (ECFSG), a.k.a the EULAR autoantibody study group, is to achieve a common consensus in autoantibody diagnostics: a laboratory result should be the same, independent of the country or laboratory where the result is obtained.Since 1988, the ECFSG has yearly distributed unknown sera to European laboratories (presently 43) for evaluation in a clinical context. These sera are chosen to reveal differences between different laboratories. The results are discussed in conjunction to the European Workshop for Rheumatology Research (EWRR) every year. Use of reference materials helps to align test results by adopting internationally used measurement units, but reference materials are missing for many autoantibody specificities. Since 2014 an ECFSG focus has been on evaluating samples that might constitute new reference materials for companies producing autoantibody measurement assays, as well as for clinical laboratories. Hitherto investigated autoantibody specificities are provided in the table 1.In my talk I will present the work of ECFSG, including the characterisation of the samples that have constituted raw material for currently available reference materials. I will also tell about our first characterisation of a tentative new reagent sample, that thereafter was produced as reference material by the National Institute of Biological Standards and Control (NIBCS) in the UK. In November 2017 that reagent was endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to become the new international reference reagent for anti-double stranded DNA (anti-dsDNA) antibodies.

Disclosure of Interest None declared