title: Antinuclear antibody-positive cohort constitutes homogeneous entity in juvenile idiopathic arthritis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify a homogeneous entity for antinuclear antibody (ANA)-positive patients suffering from juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).
  
  
  METHODS
  All of the clinical features were recorded retrospectively. ANA positivity was defined as more than twice positive results at a titer of > 1:100. The correlation between ANA positivity and clinical parameters was assessed by multiple logistic regression analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 120 patients, 49 patients were ANA positive (31 oligoarthritis, 18 rheumatoid factor [RF]-negative polyarthritis) and 71 patients were ANA negative (48 oligoarthritis, 23 RF-negative polyarthritis), and were recruited retrospectively to this study according to the International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR) criteria. In ANA-positive cohort, the characteristics of early-onset age, female predominance, and asymmetric arthritis were observed compared with ANA-negative cohort including oligoarthritis and RF-negative polyarthritis. Correspondingly, we found that ANA-positive cohort had higher cumulative number of joints affected at 9 and 12 months after disease presentation than ANA-negative cohort, had lower frequency of occurrence of image change, and had a different pattern of affected arthritis than ANA-negative cohort, which was more likely to have knee involvement and less likely to have hip and shoulder involvement. ANA positivity correlated strongly with asymmetric arthritis, female predominance and wrist involvement.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrates that ANA-positive cohort divided into different subgroups by present ILAR criteria share the similar features and suggests that ANA positivity might serve as a novel potential value for JIA classification.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Rheumatism , Capital Institute of Pediatrics , Beijing , China.|b Division of Pneumonology-Immunology, Department of Pediatrics , Charité University Medical Center , Berlin , Germany.
authors.forename: Xiaolin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: c Department of Molecular Immunology , Capital Institute of Pediatrics , Beijing , China.
authors.forename: Le
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xin
authors.affiliation: c Department of Molecular Immunology , Capital Institute of Pediatrics , Beijing , China.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: c Department of Molecular Immunology , Capital Institute of Pediatrics , Beijing , China.
authors.forename: Zhewei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear / Q000276:immunology*; D001171:Arthritis, Juvenile / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000276:immunology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D011859:Radiography; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012219:Rheumatology / Q000379:methods; D014955:Wrist Joint / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*
chemical_list: D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear
keywords: ANA positivity; Asymmetric arthritis; Female predominance; Juvenile idiopathic arthritis