Treatment of Systemic Juvenile Arthritis Guided By Recommendations From Physicians

Estimates from the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) reveal that there are nearly 300,000 children with juvenile arthritis and other rheumatic illnesses in the U.S. For pediatric patients with systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), effective treatment for this disabling disease is imperative. New treatment recommendations that guide physicians caring for children with systemic JIA are now published in the ACR journals, Arthritis & Rheumatism and Arthritis Care & Research.

Systemic JIA is defined by the International League of Associations for Rheumatology as arthritis in one or more joints for at least six weeks in children sixteen years of age or younger. The arthritis is accompanied or preceded by fever for at least two-weeks that is daily ("quotidian") for at least 3 of those days, with one or more of the following symptoms: red rash (evanescent erythematous rash), enlarged liver, spleen or lymph nodes, and inflammation of the tissue lining (serositis) of the lungs, heart, or stomach. Medical evidence suggests that systemic JIA accounts for 4% to 15% of all JIA cases.