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In reply

We would like to thank the editor for the opportunity to reply to the observations of Goichot and Vinizio regarding our study. We agree that the observations of the study would have been strengthened had the definitive diagnosis been established by an independent panel not involved in the patient’s care. However, we believe that some of that bias has been eliminated because the diagnoses were established after a consensus had been reached by experts in a postclinic conference. Goichot and Vinizio correctly point out that we used classification criteria. Classification criteria are mainly used to "standardize clinical definitions for use in research studies"¹ and they work better in groups of patients (such as our cohort) than in an individual patient. At least in the academic practice setting at Johns Hopkins, most patients (93%) with a clinical diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) met classification criteria.² The problem is . . . [Full Text of this Article]

AUTHOR INFORMATION
Sonali Narain, MD, MPH; Hanno B. Richards, MD; Minoru Satoh, MD; Marlene Sarmiento, RN; Richard Davidson, MD, MPH; Jonathan Shuster, PhD; Eric Sobel, MD; Paulette Hahn, MD; Westley H. Reeves, MD

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