Evidence for Updating the Core Domain Set of Outcome Measures for Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: Report from a Special Interest Group at OMERACT 2016.

Objective: The current Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) Core Set was developed in 1997 to identify the outcome measures to be used in JIA clinical trials using statistical and consensus-based techniques, but without patient involvement. The importance of patient/parent input into the research process has increasingly been recognized over the years. An Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) JIA Core Set Working Group was formed to determine whether the outcome domains of the current core set are relevant to those involved or whether the core set domains should be revised.

Defining criteria for disease activity states in nonsystemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis based on a three-variable juvenile arthritis disease activity score.

Objective: To determine cutoff values for defining the states of inactive disease (ID), low disease activity (LDA; or minimal disease activity), moderate disease activity (MDA), and high disease activity (HDA) using the clinical (3-variable) Juvenile Arthritis Disease Activity Score (cJADAS).

Methods: For selection of cutoffs, data from a clinical database including 609 children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) were used. Optimal cutoffs were determined against external criteria by calculating the 75th and 90th percentile (for ID and LDA) and 10th and 25th percentile (for HDA) of cumulative score distribution and through receiver operating characteristic curve analysis.

Female sex and oligoarthritis category are not risk factors for uveitis in Italian children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

Objective: To investigate the risk factors for chronic anterior uveitis in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).

Methods: The clinical charts of patients followed between January 1987 and December 2011 were reviewed to establish whether they had uveitis. Inclusion criteria were a diagnosis of JIA and a disease category of persistent oligoarthritis, extended oligoarthritis, rheumatoid factor-negative polyarthritis, psoriatic arthritis, or undifferentiated arthritis.

Defining criteria for high disease activity in juvenile idiopathic arthritis based on the juvenile arthritis disease activity score.

Objective: To determine cutoff values for defining the state of high disease activity (HDA) in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) using the Juvenile Arthritis Disease Activity Score (JADAS).

Methods: For the selection of cutoff values, data from a clinical database including 609 patients were used. Optimal cutoff values were determined against external criteria by calculating the 25th and 10th centile of cumulative score distribution and through receiver operating characteristic curve analysis.

Frequency of radiographic damage and progression in individual joints in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

Objective: To evaluate the presence and progression of radiographic joint damage, as assessed with the adapted Sharp/van der Heijde score (SHS), in individual joints in the hand and wrist in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and to compare progression of damage among different JIA categories.

Methods: A total of 372 radiographs of both wrists and hands obtained at first observation and at last followup visit (after 1-10 years) in 186 children with polyarticular-course JIA were evaluated. All radiographs were scored using the adapted SHS by 2 independent readers.

Bone density in children treated with gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs for central precocious puberty.

Estrogens, growth hormones and IGFs are essential in the development and growth of the skeleton and for the maintenance of bone mass and density. Treatment of precocious puberty with gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs (GnRHa), leads to a situation of hypoestrogenism by reducing sex-steroid levels, which, theoretically, may have a detrimental effect on bone mass during pubertal development. A reduction in bone mineral density during GnRHa treatment has been shown, but GnRHa treatment in patients with central precocious puberty does not seem to impair the achievement of normal peak bone mass at adult height.

Prevalence of polycystic ovary syndrome in young women who had idiopathic central precocious puberty.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in a cohort of young women with previous idiopathic central precocious puberty (ICPP) at least 3 years after menarche, and to look for any predictive factors of PCOS at the time ICPP was diagnosed.

Design: Longitudinal study.

Setting: Pediatrics unit, Verona, Italy.