Juvenile dermatomyositis at diagnosis: clinical characteristics of 79 children.

Objective: To evaluate demographic and clinical characteristics, duration of time between disease onset (date of first rash and/or weakness), and diagnosis/therapy, as well as socioeconomic status, of children with newly diagnosed juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM).

Methods: Structured telephone interview of families of a cohort of 79 children with JDM: interval between onset of symptoms to diagnosis, median of 3 months (range 0.5-20.

Immunogenetic studies in families of children with juvenile dermatomyositis.

Objective: We reported an association between juvenile dermatomyositis (JDMS) and the HLA-DQA1*0501 allele. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is evidence for linkage between JDMS and the DQA1*0501 allele in JDMS families.

Methods: The study population included 18 unrelated patients with JDMS, their parents, and 49 unaffected siblings.

Psychopathology and health care use among preschool children: a retrospective analysis.

Objective: To examine the relationship between psychopathology and health care utilization beginning in the preschool (ages 2 to 5) years.

Method: Five hundred ten preschool children were enrolled through 68 primary care physicians. The test battery used for diagnoses included the Child Behavior Checklist, a developmental evaluation, the Rochester Adaptive Behavior Inventory, and a videotaped play session.

New-onset juvenile dermatomyositis: comparisons with a healthy cohort and children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To determine, in a case-control study, if patients with new-onset juvenile dermatomyositis (juvenile DM) have increased symptoms prior to onset, exposure to certain environmental conditions, frequency of familial autoimmune diseases, or antibody titers, compared with 2 control groups.

Methods: A structured interview with the families of 80 children with juvenile DM, 40 children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), or 23 healthy children, from the same geographic area as the children with juvenile DM, was conducted. All children's sera were tested for antibody to Toxoplasma gondii, herpes simplex virus (HSV), or coxsackievirus B (CVB).

Lack of detection of enteroviral RNA or bacterial DNA in magnetic resonance imaging-directed muscle biopsies from twenty children with active untreated juvenile dermatomyositis.

Objective: To investigate for the presence of increased titers of circulating antibody to putative infectious agents and for detectable viral RNA or bacterial DNA in children with active recent-onset juvenile dermatomyositis (DM).

Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging-directed muscle biopsies were performed in 20 children with active, untreated, recent-onset juvenile DM and in age-matched children with neurologic disease. Sera were tested for complement-fixing antibody to Coxsackievirus B (CVB), influenza A and B, parainfluenza 1 and 3, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, mumps, respiratory syncytial virus, and Reovirus; and by immunofluorescence for IgG antibody to Toxoplasma gondii cytomegalovirus and IgM antibody to Epstein-Barr virus.