Association of juvenile spondyloarthritis (jSpA) with the HLA-B27 genotype is well established, but there is little knowledge of other genetic factors with a role in the development of the disease. To date, only a few studies have tried to find those associated genes by obtaining expression profiles, but with inconsistent results due to various patient selection criteria and methodology. The ai...

Conjugation is a driving force in the evolution and shaping of bacterial genomes. In antibiotic producing streptomycetes even small plasmids replicating via the rolling-circle mechanism are conjugative. Although they encode only genes involved in replication and transfer, the molecular function of most plasmid encoded proteins is unknown. In this work we show that the conjugative plasmid pIJ101...

BACKGROUND Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is often used to diagnose and monitor treatment effects of juvenile spondyloarthropathy (SpA). Our objective was to describe MRI findings in juvenile SpA and determine predictors of active sacroiliitis and response to treatment. METHODS Children who had MRI of the sacroiliac (SI) joints and were referred to the pediatric rheumatology clinic from 200...

Background and aims: Recently, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been introduced in the diagnosis of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, it is still rarely reported in paediatric IBD. We studied the diagnostic value of gadolinium enhanced MRI in revealing inflammation of the distal ileum in children with Crohn’s disease (CD) and in differentiating them from patients with...

Differentiating between arthralgia and arthritis is of the utmost importance for the pediatrician. Proper joint exam, aided by adequate use of laboratory and imaging tests, makes this differentiation possible. Renee F. Modica, MD, Sukesh Sukumaran, MD, and myself give a comprehensive review of the joint exam in children, providing illustrations of the exam maneuvers and interpretations of diffe...