What are the criteria for cGVHD Diagnosis?

Dr Daniel R Couriel

For the diagnosis of chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD), the main criteria are clinical. Nowadays, the definition of cGVHD no longer has to do with GVHD diagnosed after day 100, but more with a clinical-criteria definition. That, basically, is what you go by. You can biopsy different tissues to confirm cGVHD, but I use biopsy in a minority of patients. Usually, clinical presentation is sufficient. There are differential diagnoses, such as, on occasion, infection, although infection and cGVHD can coexist, but usually that is all. Unfortunately, we do not have other biomarkers to diagnose or predict it or to follow its clinical course. I am sure that Jamie will allude to biomarkers when he talks about acute GVHD (aGVHD), but that is how I diagnose cGVHD.