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Diagnosing Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus

Assessing sensitivity and specificity of a novel tool

Publish date:: November 2, 2015

The cutaneous lupus screening (CLUSE) tool comprising 15 closed-ended questions, when combined with representative photographs, can ascertain cases of cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE) with high sensitivity and specificity, according to a study of 117 participants, including 24 patients with CLE and 93 non-CLE controls. Researchers found:

Mean CLUSE scores were 5.6 in the CLE group vs 0.96 in the non-CLE group.

Median CLUSE scores were 5.5 in the CLE group vs 0 in the non-CLE group.

Of 9 algorithms tested, algorithm 9, used for diagnosing CLE regardless of subtype, showed the highest sensitivity (87.5%) and high specificity (96.8%).

Citation: Lam C, Liu SW, Townsend HB, Femia AN, Qureshi AA, Vleugels RA. Development and pilot testing of the Cutaneous Lupus Screening Tool. [Published online ahead of print October 28, 2015]. JAMA Dermatol. doi: 10.1001/jamadermatol.2015.3088.

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