Clinical, HLA, and roentgenological follow up study of patients with juvenile arthritis: comparison between the long term outcome of transient and persistent arthritis in children.

Fifty two patients with juvenile chronic arthritis (JCA) and 22 patients with arthritis of short duration (transient arthritis, TA) were studied in a follow up investigation. Nineteen (37%) of the patients with JCA had peripheral arthritis or sequelae in the form of contractures at follow up, and in addition one patient was treated with corticosteroids. In contrast, only one (5%) of the 22 patients with TA had peripheral arthritis at follow up. Back pain or limitation, or both, was registered in many of the men. Sacroiliitis, verified by x ray, was often found both in JCA (39/46, 85%) and in TA (16/21, 76%). For JCA an association was confirmed with HLA-A2 and HLA-DRw8 and a negative association with HLA-DR4, and in pauciarticular JCA, in addition, a decrease of DR7. A new finding was a low prevalence of HLA-B27 in women with JCA and grade 3 or 4 sacroiliitis (2/14, 14%).