@article {Yee873, author = {C-S Yee and D A Isenberg and A Prabu and K Sokoll and L-S Teh and A Rahman and I N Bruce and B Griffiths and M Akil and N McHugh and D D{\textquoteright}Cruz and M A Khamashta and P Maddison and A Zoma and C Gordon}, title = {BILAG-2004 index captures systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity better than SLEDAI-2000}, volume = {67}, number = {6}, pages = {873--876}, year = {2008}, doi = {10.1136/ard.2007.070847}, publisher = {BMJ Publishing Group Ltd}, abstract = {Objective: To assess the reliability of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI)-2000 index in routine practice and its ability to capture disease activity as compared with the British Isles Lupus Assessment Group (BILAG)-2004 index.Methods: Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus from 11 centres were assessed separately by two raters in routine practice. Disease activity was assessed using the BILAG-2004 and SLEDAI-2000 indices. The level of agreement for items was used to assess the reliability of SLEDAI-2000. The ability to detect disease activity was assessed by determining the number of patients with a high activity on BILAG-2004 (overall score A or B) but low SLEDAI-2000 score (\<6) and number of patients with low activity on BILAG-2004 (overall score C, D or E) but high SLEDAI-2000 score (⩾6). Treatment of these patients was analysed, and the increase in treatment was used as the gold standard for active disease.Results: 93 patients (90.3\% women, 69.9\% Caucasian) were studied: mean age was 43.8 years, mean disease duration 10 years. There were 43 patients (46.2\%) with a difference in SLEDAI-2000 score between the two raters and this difference was ⩾4 in 19 patients (20.4\%). Agreement for each of the items in SLEDAI-2000 was between 81.7 and 100\%. 35 patients (37.6\%) had high activity on BILAG-2004 but a low SLEDAI-2000 score, of which 48.6\% had treatment increased. There were only five patients (5.4\%) with low activity on BILAG-2004 but a high SLEDAI-2000 score.Conclusions: SLEDAI-2000 is a reliable index to assess systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity but it is less able than the BILAG-2004 index to detect active disease requiring increased treatment.}, issn = {0003-4967}, URL = {https://ard.bmj.com/content/67/6/873}, eprint = {https://ard.bmj.com/content/67/6/873.full.pdf}, journal = {Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases} }