[Prognosis of the systemic forms of juvenile chronic arthritis. Apropos of 100 cases].

The records of 100 children presenting with systemic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis were studied retrospectively. The precocity of onset and intensity of initial extra-articular signs did not seem to be correlated with a more severe outcome. On the other hand, the number of arthritides present during the first 6 months seemed to be associated with a different prognosis: the oligo- or abarticular forms generally had a better prognosis.

[Joint prognosis in systemic chronic juvenile arthritis (100 cases)].

A retrospective study of 100 cases of systemic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, including 51 girls and 49 boys, is reported. Follow-up was at least three years in 83 cases, 7 years in 72 of them and 12 years in 20 of them. Patients were included in the study if they experienced high grade intermittent fever for at least two weeks at any time during the course of their disease: thus, patients with delayed fever were eligible whatever the time-interval between onset of the disease and occurrence of fever.

[Inflammatory rheumatism in children. Definitions and nosology].

In this critical nosological study of chronic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, the author opposes his own pluralist concept based on a longitudinal analysis of the overall development to the conventional unicist concept in which the three forms of the disease are regarded as initial presentations of one single entity. The relationship between the systemic form and the abarticular hyperimmune syndromes previously described by Wissler and Fanconi is stressed. Similarities between juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and reactional inflammatory joint diseases of well defined aetiology are discussed; both are considered articular immune reactions to more or less demonstrable antigens.

[The indications and results of treatment of children with chronic juvenile arthritis in a specialised centre].

Thirty children were admitted to a specialised centre for rehabilitation for chronic juvenile arthritis. Ten of them stayed for one to three months usually during the school holidays to perfect the physiotherapy essential for the maintenance of a good functional state. Twenty were admitted for longer periods, because of more severe forms of the disease which could not be satisfactorily retrained at home.