Figure 1

Statistical comparison of the diagnostic performance of the American-European Consensus Group (AECG) criteria for Sjögren's syndrome with baseline and cumulative focus scores (FSs). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to compare the sensitivity and specificity of the AECG criteria with the baseline focus score and with the FS obtained after multilevel histopathological evaluation, with respect to the gold standard of patient re-evaluation by the experienced rheumatologists. The diagnostic performance was significantly improved in the overall series (top left panel; P= 0.016), mostly because of the improvement in the group of patients with 1 ≤ FS < 2 (bottom left; P= 0.013). No difference was observed when FS = 0. No ROC curve could be obtained in the group of patients with 0 < FS < 1, because of the absence of cases classified as Sjögren's syndrome at clinical re-evaluation (positive gold standard). CI, confidence interval.