Table 3 Differences in methodology between American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) recommendations published in 2000.

Element	ACR	EULAR knee OA
Committee composition	4 American rheumatologists	18 rheumatologists, 3 orthopaedic surgeons, 2 evidence based medicine experts from 12 European countries
Management topic	Knee and hip OA	Knee OA
Literature review	Not described, up to 2000	Systematic review, up to 1998
Language of publication	Not defined	All European
Appraisal of literature	Principles of evidence based medicine	Quality scores, effect size, number needed to treat, category of evidence, strength of recommendation
Number of recommendations	Not specified	Top 10
Consensus method	Not described	Delphi exercise
Future research agenda	Not specified	Agreed using Delphi exercise

Adapted with permission from Roddy and Doherty.⁸