Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in African Americans.
OBJECTIVE
To examine racial differences in disease expression in African American and Caucasian children with pauciarticular and polyarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA).


METHODS
A retrospective chart review was conducted of 35 African American and 137 Caucasian children with pauciarticular and polyarticular JRA.


RESULTS
African American children were significantly older than Caucasian children at the time of presentation. This was true both for the group as a whole and for each of the disease onset subtypes. African American children were less likely to have positive antinuclear antibody tests than Caucasian children. This finding paralleled a low incidence of uveitis in African American children. African American children were also more likely to have IgM rheumatoid factors (detected by latex agglutination) than Caucasian children. This was true even for African American children with pauciarticular JRA.


CONCLUSIONS
There are significant phenotypic differences between African American and Caucasian children with JRA.
Schwartz
M M
MM
Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, michigan, USA.
Simpson
P
P
Kerr
K L
KL
Jarvis
J N
JN
D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear / Q000097:blood; D001171:Arthritis, Juvenile / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000235:genetics; D044383:Black People / Q000235:genetics*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012217:Rheumatoid Factor / Q000097:blood; D014605:Uveitis / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics; D001741:Black or African American
D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear; D012217:Rheumatoid Factor