Current treatment by United States and Canadian pediatric rheumatologists.
OBJECTIVE
To determine current treatment practices for 11 selected pediatric rheumatic diseases.


METHODS
A questionnaire was mailed to 224 US and Canadian physicians who were listed in membership directories that included pediatric rheumatologists.


RESULTS
One hundred seventy-four questionnaires (78%) were returned. Board certified pediatricians accounted for 86% of respondents. Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs were the most commonly used medicines for all forms of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), seronegative enthesopathy and arthropathy syndrome (SEA), and Henoch-Schönlein purpura, whereas oral corticosteroids were most frequently used for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), juvenile dermatomyositis, polyarteritis nodosa, and sarcoidosis. Intraarticular corticosteroid injection was the second most common therapy for pauciarticular JRA, but methotrexate (MTX) was second for polyarticular and systemic onset forms of JRA, and sulfasalazine was second for SEA. For all diseases, MTX was administered orally roughly twice as often as subcutaneously. In treating SLE, cyclophosphamide was used more frequently than azathioprine, cyclosporin A, or intravenous immunoglobulin.


CONCLUSIONS
The results from this survey should allow individual practitioners to compare their treatment patterns to pediatric rheumatologists in the US and Canada as a whole.
Cron
R Q
RQ
Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
Sharma
S
S
Sherry
D D
DD
D000293:Adolescent; D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001171:Arthritis, Juvenile / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002170:Canada; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002983:Clinical Competence; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008727:Methotrexate / Q000627:therapeutic use; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012460:Sulfasalazine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States
D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal; D012460:Sulfasalazine; D008727:Methotrexate