To validate the 2010-ACR/EULAR criteria for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), taking into account the recent EULAR definition of “erosive disease”, on the 310 patients comprising the very early arthritis cohort (VErA).

2010-criteria performances were tested by first strictly applying its three items successively: ≥ 1 clinical synovitis/another disease(s)/score ≥ 6/10), then the typical erosion grid without obtaining a score of ≥ 6 to diagnose RA. We tested successively: no erosion (S1), ≥ 1 erosion(s) (S2), EULAR-defined erosive disease (S3). Two gold standards were used: expert diagnosis at six years and EULAR erosive disease at two years.

At inclusion, median age was 52 years; median RA duration 4.2 months. 2010-ACR/EULAR criteria, including EULAR-defined erosive disease applied at baseline, classified comparable numbers of patients as the 1987 criteria (P=0.27). Using expert diagnosis at six years, more patients were classified as RA with S2 than 1987-ACR criteria (P<0.04). In contrast, sensitivity and specificity indicated that 2010-ACR/EULAR–S3 criteria performed slightly but not significantly better than 1987-ACR criteria. On ROC curves, a score ≥ 6 correctly classified RA. When EULAR-defined erosion at two years was the gold standard, the 1987-ACR, the 2010-S1, -S2 and -S3 criteria performed comparably.

Using the very early community-based, conservatively treated VErA cohort, the strict application of 2010-ACR/EULAR criteria using the new EULAR definition of erosive disease or not performed slightly but not significantly better than the 1987-ACR criteria.