Methotrexate is a cornerstone of therapy worldwide for juvenile idiopathic arthritis, yet there remains vast variability in drug dosing and administration, as well as unpredictable outcomes on the drug. Recent efforts through worldwide organization and collaboration have resulted in large registries from which we can now collect clinical data, attempts to standardize therapeutic management with...

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is not a disease, but an exclusion diagnosis that encompasses all forms of arthritis that begin before the age of 16 years, persist for more than 6 weeks, and are of unknown origin. This heterogeneous group of chronic arthritides has been classified on clinical and laboratory grounds to try to identify homogeneous, mutually exclusives categories suitable for ...

3.1 What laboratory tests are needed? At the time of diagnosis, certain laboratory tests are useful along with joint examination and eye checks. These tests help to define the type of JIA and to identify patients at risk of developing specific complications such as chronic iridocyclitis. Rheumatoid factor (RF) is a laboratory test detecting an autoantibody, which, if positive and persistent in ...

Introduction All chronic childhood arthritides of unknown aetiology are termed as Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis ( JIA). The disease may occur as early as 3–6 years of age, but it occasionally manifests before one year of age. JIA is the most common chronic rheumatic disease in childhood with an incidence of 10-19/100.000 children under the age of 16 years, and it is a major cause of physically ...

Systemic onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) is defined as arthritis affecting one or more joint usually in the juvenile age group (< 16 years of age) with or preceded by fever of at least 2 weeks duration that is documented to be daily ("quotidian") for at least 3 days which may be associated with evanescent (non-fixed) erythematous rash or generalized lymph node enlargement or hepatome...

Background: Patients with rheumatologic diseases have higher rates of cardiovascular disease. Accelerated atherosclerosis and early coronary artery disease have become important causes of death and hospitalization in those patients which may be attributed to metabolic changes in lipids. We aimed to clarify the cardiovascular risk in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JRA), and systemi...

BACKGROUND Palindromic rheumatism is an idiopathic, periodic arthritis characterized by multiple, transient, recurring episodes. Palindromic rheumatism is well-characterized in adults, but has never been reported in pediatric populations. The aim of this study was to characterize the clinical features and outcomes of a series of pediatric patients with palindromic rheumatism. METHODS We defin...