PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Ronald van Vollenhoven AU - Alexandre Voskuyl AU - George Bertsias AU - Cynthia Aranow AU - Martin Aringer AU - Laurent Arnaud AU - Anca Askanase AU - Petra Balážová AU - Eloisa Bonfa AU - Hendrika Bootsma AU - Dimitrios Boumpas AU - Ian Bruce AU - Ricard Cervera AU - Ann Clarke AU - Cindy Coney AU - Nathalie Costedoat-Chalumeau AU - László Czirják AU - Ronald Derksen AU - Andrea Doria AU - Thomas Dörner AU - Rebecca Fischer-Betz AU - Ruth Fritsch-Stork AU - Caroline Gordon AU - Winfried Graninger AU - Noémi Györi AU - Frédéric Houssiau AU - David Isenberg AU - Soren Jacobsen AU - David Jayne AU - Annegret Kuhn AU - Veronique Le Guern AU - Kirsten Lerstrøm AU - Roger Levy AU - Francinne Machado-Ribeiro AU - Xavier Mariette AU - Jamil Missaykeh AU - Eric Morand AU - Marta Mosca AU - Murat Inanc AU - Sandra Navarra AU - Irmgard Neumann AU - Marzena Olesinska AU - Michelle Petri AU - Anisur Rahman AU - Ole Petter Rekvig AU - Jozef Rovensky AU - Yehuda Shoenfeld AU - Josef Smolen AU - Angela Tincani AU - Murray Urowitz AU - Bernadette van Leeuw AU - Carlos Vasconcelos AU - Anne Voss AU - Victoria P Werth AU - Helena Zakharova AU - Asad Zoma AU - Matthias Schneider AU - Michael Ward TI - A framework for remission in SLE: consensus findings from a large international task force on definitions of remission in SLE (DORIS) AID - 10.1136/annrheumdis-2016-209519 DP - 2017 Mar 01 TA - Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases PG - 554--561 VI - 76 IP - 3 4099 - http://ard.bmj.com/content/76/3/554.short 4100 - http://ard.bmj.com/content/76/3/554.full SO - Ann Rheum Dis2017 Mar 01; 76 AB - Objectives Treat-to-target recommendations have identified ‘remission’ as a target in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), but recognise that there is no universally accepted definition for this. Therefore, we initiated a process to achieve consensus on potential definitions for remission in SLE.Methods An international task force of 60 specialists and patient representatives participated in preparatory exercises, a face-to-face meeting and follow-up electronic voting. The level for agreement was set at 90%.Results The task force agreed on eight key statements regarding remission in SLE and three principles to guide the further development of remission definitions:1. Definitions of remission will be worded as follows: remission in SLE is a durable state characterised by …………………. (reference to symptoms, signs, routine labs).2. For defining remission, a validated index must be used, for example, clinical systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index (SLEDAI)=0, British Isles lupus assessment group (BILAG) 2004 D/E only, clinical European consensus lupus outcome measure (ECLAM)=0; with routine laboratory assessments included, and supplemented with physician's global assessment.3. Distinction is made between remission off and on therapy: remission off therapy requires the patient to be on no other treatment for SLE than maintenance antimalarials; and remission on therapy allows patients to be on stable maintenance antimalarials, low-dose corticosteroids (prednisone ≤5 mg/day), maintenance immunosuppressives and/or maintenance biologics.The task force also agreed that the most appropriate outcomes (dependent variables) for testing the prognostic value (construct validity) of potential remission definitions are: death, damage, flares and measures of health-related quality of life.Conclusions The work of this international task force provides a framework for testing different definitions of remission against long-term outcomes.