Diagnosis and treatment of enthesitis-related arthritis

gnosis and treatment of enthesitis-related arthritis Review (2568) Total Article Views Authors: Weiss PF Published Date June 2012 Volume 2012:3 Pages 67 - 74 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/AHMT.S25872 Received: 06 March 2012 Accepted: 17 April 2012 Published: 05 June 2012 Pamela F Weiss Division of Rheumatology and Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Departments of Pediatrics and Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA Abstract: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a chronic, inflammatory disease of unknown etiology. The enthesitis-related arthritis (ERA) JIA category describes a clinically heterogeneous group of children including some who have predominately enthesitis, enthesitis and arthritis, juvenile ankylosing spondylitis, or inflammatory bowel disease-associated arthropathy. ERA accounts for 10%–20% of JIA. Common clinical manifestations of ERA include arthritis, enthesitis, and acute anterior uveitis. Axial disease is also common in children with established ERA. Treatment regimens for ERA, many of them based on adults with rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, include the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, and biologic agents either individually or in combination.