title: Patients with juvenile psoriatic arthritis comprise two distinct populations.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in children is clinically heterogeneous. We examined a large population of children with juvenile PsA for evidence of phenotypic clustering that could suggest the presence of distinct clinical entities.
  
  
  METHODS
  We reviewed the medical records of 139 patients meeting the Vancouver criteria for juvenile PsA. To identify segregation into phenotypic groups, we compared younger patients with their older counterparts and subjected the whole population to 2-step cluster analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among patients with juvenile PsA, the age at onset is biphasic, with peaks occurring at approximately 2 years of age and again in late childhood. Compared with children ages 5 years and older, younger patients are more likely to be female, exhibit dactylitis and small joint involvement, and express antinuclear antibodies. Progression to polyarticular disease (>or=5 joints) is more common in younger children, although joint involvement remains oligoarticular in the majority of children. In contrast, older patents tend to manifest enthesitis, axial joint disease, and persistent oligoarthritis. Uveitis is equally represented in both age groups. Despite a higher utilization of methotrexate therapy, younger patients required, on average, more than twice as long to achieve clinical remission (23 months versus 9.2 months; P = 0.044). Cluster analysis identified largely overlapping subgroups but suggested that the presence of dactylitis, rather than age, has the greatest capacity to predict essential features of the clinical phenotype.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Juvenile PsA comprises 2 distinct populations of patients. Although the pathophysiologic correlate of this finding remains undefined, future studies should avoid the assumption that PsA in childhood constitutes a single etiologic entity.
authors.affiliation: Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Stoll
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zurakowski
authors.forename: Lise E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Nigrovic
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Nichols
authors.forename: Robert P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Sundel
authors.forename: Peter A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Nigrovic
mesh_terms: D017668:Age of Onset; D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear / Q000097:blood; D001171:Arthritis, Juvenile / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D015535:Arthritis, Psoriatic / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010641:Phenotype
chemical_list: D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear