Research

SLICC has made several seminal contributions:

1. Development of the SLICC/American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Damage Index (SDI) in 1996 (led by Dr. Gladman)
2. Development of the SLICC Classification Criteria for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in 2012 (led by Dr. Petri)
3. Creating a definition of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus disease flare (led by Dr. Isenberg)

Currently, SLICC members are engaged in several ongoing areas of key focus:

1. Longitudinal follow up of the Inception Cohort regarding the outcomes of atherosclerosis, nervous system involvement and metabolic involvement (led by Drs. Urowitz, Hanly, and Bruce)
2. Development of models based on analysis of longitudinal data from the Inception Cohort, which describe likelihood of developing lupus nephritis and end-stage renal disease as well as other organ-related damage accrual (led by Drs. Hanly, Farewell, and Bruce)
3. Evaluation of the association between glucocorticoid usage and damage accrual (led by Drs. Bruce and Mak)
4. Economic analysis of long-term costs associated with renal involvement, damage accrual, and transitions between disease activity states using the Inception Cohort (led by Dr. Clarke)
5. Evaluating the risk and determinants of malignancy in patients with lupus using the prevalent cohorts at each SLICC site (led by Drs. Bernatsky, Ramsey-Goldman, and Clarke)

SLICC is engaged in several novel initiatives:

1. Development of a pregnancy cohort (led by Drs. Vinet, Bernatsky, and Buyon)
2. Adverse pregnancy outcomes and risk of cardiovascular disease in SLE (led by Drs. Jacobsen and Vinet)
3. Development of a working group on microparticles in SLE (led by Drs. Fortin and Boilard)
4. Revision of the SDI (led by Drs. Bruce, Inanc, and Petri)