EEG findings in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and other connective tissue diseases in children.

Abstract

Abstract. Lang, H., Anttila, R., Svékus, A. and Laaksonen, Anna‐Liisa (Department of Paediatrics and Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland). EEG findings in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and other connective tissue diseases in children. Acta Paediatr Scand 63: 373, 1974.–The object of the study was to determine which factors are most likely to cause EEG changes in children suffering from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) and other connective tissue disorders. EEG curves from 100 patients were analysed; 93 of these had JRA, 3 had systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 2 psoriasis, 1 dermatomyositis and 1 scleroderma circumscripta.Pathological EEG was found in 52 patients, borderline in 16 and normal EEG in 32. In the JRA group it was found that if patients had positive antinuclear antibodies or visceral symptoms like pericarditis and/or myocarditis, they had fewer pathological EEG changes than those suffering from a form of the disease with symptoms only in the joints. The number of pathological EEG findings increased with age of the patients.Pathological EEG changes were found to occur more often in girls than boys, and were connected with those forms of the disease where, in addition to symptoms in the joints, there was fever due to the disease itself and possibly also non‐infectious leukocytosis.No correlation was found between EEG changes and the kind of drug treatment of JRA. There was no clear correlation between EEG changes and the duration of the disease or age at onset.In the group of seven patients with other connective tissue disorders only one with SLE had normal EEG.The observations give reason to suppose that the pathological EEG changes, especially the slowness of activity and the asymmetrical focal disturbances, are caused by the primary cerebral process connected with the disease itself, probably vasculitis.