Publications by authors named "Jarkko Haapasaari"
Objective: To evaluate functioning and preferences for health among young adult patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and controls. The WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) was used as a framework.
Methods: The patient files of a rheumatology hospital were screened to identify patients with juvenile arthritis born 1976 to 1980.
Objective: To assess the costs of adding etanercept to the prevailing drug therapy for a one-year period in a group of 31 children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) whose disease was refractory to conventional disease modifying antirheumatic drugs.
Methods: The changes in total costs were retrospectively collected from medical records and by interviewing parents 6 months before the initiation of etanercept treatment and during a 12-month followup divided into 3-month periods.
Results: Direct median costs increased during the first 3 months after the introduction of etanercept, but decreased later during the followup.
Objective: To assess the efficacy of growth hormone (GH) treatment in severe growth retardation in prepubertal children with juvenile chronic arthritis (JCA).
Methods: In a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study, we treated 25 prepubertal children (7 boys, 18 girls, mean age 9.0 yrs) with severe growth retardation due to JCA with human recombinant GH (6 months) and placebo (6 months).
Objective: To evaluate hepatotoxicity in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) receiving methotrexate (MTX) therapy with doses of 20-30 mg/m2 of body surface area.
Methods: We graded the histology of percutaneous liver biopsies from 34 patients with JIA receiving longterm (> 2.4 years) MTX therapy at the Rheumatism Foundation Hospital, Heinola, Finland, using the Roenigk classification scale.