Juvenile Arthritis

…is a growing health concern. Don’t be fooled to think arthritis only happens to adults.

- Dr Pradeep Mahajan

Arthritis as we know it, is knee or joint pain that commonly occurs in old age. However, most of us are unaware that the condition may also affect young individuals, sometimes as young as one -three years of age. Here, we present the basics of JA (Juvenile Arthritis) and the recent treatment modalities to help our children walk tall!

Understanding JA

JA is a chronic inflammatory condition which may involve one or many joints. The different forms of JA are: Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, Juvenile Dermatomyositis, Juvenile Lupus, Juvenile Scleroderma, Kawasaki Disease, Mixed Connective Tissue Disease and Fibromyalgia. Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis is considered the most common type of JA and has further subtypes such as Oligoarthritis, Polyarthritis, Systemic, Enthesitisrelated, Juvenile Psoriatic Arthritis etc.

Diagnosis

Diagnosing JA is challenging as one would not expect the condition to occur in young age. Moreover, the symptoms may not classically reflect that of arthritis as observed in older individuals. Additionally, no diagnostic test is available presently too. Low red blood cell and elevated white blood cell counts in hematological investigations may be seen, but these findings are not characteristic of JA. Investigations to identify presence of antinuclear antibodies, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide etc may be done.