Neutrophil counts distinguish between malignancy and arthritis in children with musculoskeletal pain: a case-control study.

Background: To identify the predictive factors for malignancies using basic clinical and laboratory information in children presenting with musculoskeletal pain and eventually diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) or malignancy.

Methods: A retrospective case-control chart review research examining laboratory data from patients referred for musculoskeletal pain in 2001-2010 and diagnosed with malignancy or JIA was performed. The validity of each test for the diagnosis of neoplasia was assessed by calculating the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive values (PPV), negative predictive values (NPV) and likelihood ratios.

Therapeutic approaches in the treatment of juvenile dermatomyositis in patients with recent-onset disease and in those experiencing disease flare: an international multicenter PRINTO study.

Objective: To evaluate response to therapy over a 24-month period in a large prospective international cohort of patients with juvenile dermatomyositis (DM).

Methods: The study included 145 patients with recent-onset juvenile DM and 130 juvenile DM patients experiencing disease flare, all of whom were <18 years old. Disease activity parameters and therapeutic approaches in 4 geographic areas were analyzed at baseline and at 6, 12, and 24 months.

Comparison of clinical features and drug therapies among European and Latin American patients with juvenile dermatomyositis.

Objectives: To compare the demographic features, presenting manifestations, diagnostic investigations, disease course, and drug therapies of children with juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) followed in Europe and Latin America.

Methods: Patients were inception cohorts seen between 1980 and 2004 in 27 paediatric rheumatology centres. The following information was collected through the review of patient charts: sex; age at disease onset; date of disease onset and diagnosis; onset type; presenting clinical features; diagnostic investigations; course type; and medications received during disease course.

Co-infection with Mycoplasma pneumoniae and cytomegalovirus resulting in an acute demyelinating polyneuropathy in a pediatric patient.

A co-infection with Mycoplasma pneumoniae and cytomegalovirus (CMV) resulting in an acute demyelinating polyneuropathy is reported in an immunocompetent girl. Two months following a respiratory infection, the patient showed a symptomatology consisting of weakness in lower limbs, followed by facial asymmetry and arm weakness. Serum M.

The pendulum test as a tool to evaluate passive knee stiffness and viscosity of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Background: The pendulum test of Wartenberg is a technique commonly used to measure passive knee motion with the aim to assess spasticity. We used this test to evaluate changes of the knee angular displacement, passive stiffness and viscosity in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Stiffness and viscosity represent passive resistances to joint motion associated with the structural properties of the joint tissue and of the muscular-tendon complex.

Isolated abducens nerve palsy complicating cytomegalovirus infection.

This report describes an immunocompetent 5-year-old female with isolated abducens nerve palsy complicating a cytomegalovirus infection and documented with polymerase chain reaction performed on cerebrospinal fluid; treatment with ganciclovir was associated with rapid clinical improvement. It may be the first report of cytomegalovirus detected in the central nervous system as a cause of isolated abducens nerve palsy.