Presence of uveitis as indicator of juvenile idiopathic arthritis severity: results of a retrospective cohort study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis is the most common rheumatic disease in children. A frequent extra-articular manifestation of juvenile idiopathic arthritis is uveitis, which is a serious clinical diagnostic problem in routine pediatric practice. Among the known risk factors for uveitis are the early age of the juvenile idiopathic arthritis onset, oligoarticular subtype, seropositivity by antinuclear factor.
 AIM: to evaluate the influence of presence of uveitis on the course of juvenile idiopathic arthritis.
 MATERIALS AND METHODS: A single-center retrospective study included 520 patients with uveitis. The analysis was carried out among patients who developed (n = 116) and did not develop (n = 404) uveitis. The minimum follow-up period was 2 years, for patients who did not develop uveitis.
 RESULTS: Uveitis was diagnosed in 116 (22.3%) children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Most often, uveitis occurred in patients with oligoarthritis and psoriatic arthritis. When comparing the features of the articular status of patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis who developed and did not develop uveitis, a lower frequency of involvement of the cervical spine, temporomandibular, shoulder, elbow, wrist, proximal and distal interphalangeal joints, hip, talus-heel joint, as well as a smaller number of active joints in children with uveitis was found. Patients with uveitis received methotrexate therapy more often, cumulative doses of corticosteroids were lower, the frequency of prescribing genetically engineered biological drugs was approximately the same in both groups. Remission of arthritis was achieved more often, but the proportion of children who developed an exacerbation was higher. When calculating the risk factors of uveitis by binary logistic regression, it was found that the main predictors of uveitis were oligoarthritis, the number of active joints 8, seropositivity by antinuclear factor and recurrent course of arthritis. The difference in the frequency of achieving remission may be due to more aggressive systemic therapy in the presence of uveitis.
 CONCLUSIONS: Children with uveitis have a more severe course of juvenile idiopathic arthritis and may require more aggressive immuno-suppressive therapy. Further studies are required to determine the prognostic role of uveitis in the course and outcomes of juvenile idiopathic arthritis.