Evaluation of the ILAR criteria for juvenile idiopathic arthritis.
OBJECTIVE
A pediatric rheumatology committee of ILAR has proposed new classification criteria for chronic childhood arthritis. The umbrella term "juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA)" was chosen and the disease was subdivided into 7 categories. Evaluation for these criteria is under way.


METHODS
We analyzed data of 200 consecutive children with rheumatic diseases.


RESULTS
In total 172 patients fulfilled criteria for JIA. Twenty-seven of these (15.7%) had to be grouped into the category "other arthritis": 16 met criteria for 2 categories; the other 11 did not fit into any category.


CONCLUSIONS
We suggest minor changes in the classification in order to classify 24 of these 27 patients into one of the specific categories without losing the claim for homogeneity in the different patient groups. Among the 44 patients with rheumatoid factor negative polyarthritis, 26 resembled oligoarthritis, with an extended oligoarticular joint pattern of 5 to 8 involved joints within the first 6 months. 18 had positive antinuclear antibodies, and 7 chronic uveitis. For these patients the introduction of a separate category "extended oligoarthritis at onset" should be considered to establish comparable patient groups.
Krumrey-Langkammerer
M
M
Pediatric Rheumatology Hospital Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
Häfner
R
R
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001171:Arthritis, Juvenile / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006782:Hospitals, Special; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007596:Joints / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012219:Rheumatology / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D009626:Terminology as Topic