Dear Editor,
To a large extent the questions asked by Dr Toda have been addressed in detail in previous publications. However, I will briefly address them again here.
There are two sets of criteria that are officially endorsed by American College of Rheumatology, what Dr Toda calls the 1990 criteria (Citation1) and the 2010 criteria (Citation2). The differences between these criteria are explained in detail in the recent Annals of Medicine article (Citation3). Briefly, the 1990 criteria rely predominantly on the tender point examination. The 2010 criteria do not include a tender point examination and rely on symptoms. In addition, the 2010 criteria slightly modify the case definition of fibromyalgia. Both the 1990 and 2010 criteria are acceptable ways to diagnose fibromyalgia. If with the passage of time the 2010 criteria seem to work well, it is possible that the 1990 criteria may be withdrawn. In the mean time either set of criteria may be used.
What Dr Toda calls the 2011 criteria (Citation4) are not officially recognized criteria, and we object to them being labeled as 2011 criteria, because the labeling causes confusion with the official organizational criteria. Their purpose is to facilitate clinical research, in particular survey research. The 1990 and 2010 criteria require an examiner. The survey research criteria (2011) are based entirely on self-report. They must not be used for individual diagnosis. The survey research criteria do not replace the 2010 criteria. They extend the concepts of the 2010 to survey research.
These issues are laid out in detail in three publications (Citation2–4). I urge readers with further interest to consult these publications.
Declaration of interest: The authors state no conflict of interest and have received no payment in preparation of this manuscript.
References
- Wolfe F, Smythe HA, Yunus MB, Bennett RM, Bombardier C, Goldenberg DL, . The American College of Rheumatology 1990 Criteria for the Classification of Fibromyalgia. Report of the Multicenter Criteria Committee. Arthritis Rheum. 1990;33:160–72.
- Wolfe F, Clauw DJ, Fitzcharles MA, Goldenberg DL, Katz RS, Mease P, . The American College of Rheumatology preliminary diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia and measurement of symptom severity. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2010;62:600–10.
- Wolfe F, Häuser W. Fibromyalgia diagnosis and diagnostic criteria. Ann Med. 2011 Jul 19 (Epub ahead of print).
- Wolfe F, Clauw DJ, Fitzcharles MA, Goldenberg DL, Häuser W, Katz RS, . Fibromyalgia criteria and severity scales for clinical and epidemiological studies: A modification of the ACR Preliminary Diagnostic Criteria for Fibromyalgia. J Rheumatol. 2011;38:1113–22.