Caracterización clínico-serológica de los pacientes con artritis idiopática juvenil atendidos en el Hospital de niños “Dr. Roberto Gilbert Elizalde” de 2018 a 2023.

Abstract

Introduction: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common chronic rheumatic disease in childhood. Its diagnosis is complex, and its clinical presentation is variable. Objectives: To describe the serological and clinical characteristics of patients with JIA treated at a tertiary care hospital. Materials and methods: A descriptive, retrospective, cross-sectional cohort study was conducted on patients with JIA treated between 2018 and 2023. Results: A sample of 83 patients was reviewed, predominantly female (55.4%). The median age of onset was 7 years, and the mean time from symptom onset to diagnosis was 12 months. The most frequent JIA subtype was rheumatoid factor-positive polyarticular JIA (25.3%), while the least frequent was arthritis-related enthesitis (ARE) (12%). The most common initial treatment was NSAID monotherapy (37.3%), followed by methotrexate with prednisone (21.7%). Conclusion: JIA is a very diverse pathology, with variable clinical presentation and different management according to the severity of the disease. Through this analysis, it was possible to determine the main demographic characteristics of this group of patients, with female schoolchildren with arthralgia and arthritis being the group with the highest suspicion, NSAIDs being the most used initial treatment group of medications, and disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), specially methotrexate, being the basis of maintenance treatment.