What does JIA stand for?

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is inflammation (swelling) of one or more of your joints. It first occurs before your 16th birthday. JIA is slightly more common in girls. It most commonly occurs in pre-school age children or teenagers. There are different types of JIA and symptoms vary between the different types.

What are the subtypes of JIA?

According to ILAR classification criteria, JIA is divided into seven subtypes: oligoarticular JIA, seropositive polyarticular JIA, seronegative polyarticular JIA, systemic-onset JIA (sJIA), enthesitis-related arthritis (ERA), juvenile psoriatic arthritis (JPsA) and undifferentiated JIA (Table 1) (4).

What is Oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis?

Oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (formerly called pauciarthritis or pauciarticular-onset juvenile rheumatoid arthritis) is defined as juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) involving fewer than five joints. It is the most common subgroup, constituting approximately 50 percent of cases of JIA (table 1).

What is the difference between JRA and JIA?

JIA used to be called juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), but the name changed because it is not a kid version of the adult disease. The term “juvenile arthritis” is used to describe all the joint conditions that affects kids and teens, including JIA.

Is JIA rare?

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a rare disease that is not widely known by paediatricians and general practitioner (GP) leading to diagnostic error and delayed care provision.

Can adults have JIA?

JIA is the most common chronic inflammatory arthritis in children and young people and an estimated one-third of individuals will have persistent active disease into adulthood.

Does JIA run in families?

JIA is caused by several things. These include genes and the environment. This means the disease can run in families, but can also be triggered by exposure to certain things. JIA is linked to part of a gene called HLA antigen DR4.

Is JIA symmetrical?

Symmetric, small and large joints is typical of polyarticular JIA. Hip involvement and enthesitis is typical of Enthesitis-Related Arthritis. Large joint and intermittent / flitting involvement is typical of acute rheumatic fever.

Can juvenile idiopathic arthritis go away?

JIA is a chronic condition, meaning it can last for months and years. Sometimes the symptoms just go away with treatment, which is known as remission. Remission may last for months, years, or a person’s lifetime. In fact, many teens with JIA eventually enter full remission with little or no permanent joint damage.

What is the difference between polyarthritis and Monoarthritis?

The involvement of only 1 joint is referred to as monoarthritis. Oligoarthritis is the involvement of 2-4 joints. Polyarthritis is the involvement of 5 or more joints.

Is JIA a form of rheumatoid arthritis?

Because JIA was previously known as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), many people assume JIA is simply a child version of adult rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Though JIA and adult RA are both forms of inflammatory arthritis, these conditions are distinct.

Is JIA life threatening?

The result is too much inflammation in the entire body that can affect any organ system, including the bone marrow, liver and spleen. Macrophage activation syndrome is “a potentially life-threatening complication of systemic JIA,” Schulert says.