Patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis in clinical remission with positive power Doppler signal in joint ultrasonography have an increased rate of clinical flare: a prospective study

Table 2 Demographic and clinical data from the initial evaluation of the patients who flared and did not during the study

Total patients (n = 35)	Flare (n = 20)	No flare (n = 15)	p
Mean age ± SD (years)	11.5 ± 3.6	11.6 ± 4	0.856‡
Mean age at JIA onset ± SD (years)	3.8 ± 2.8	5.1 ± 3.5	0.298‡
Mean time of JIA duration ± SD (years)	7.6 ± 3.1	6.3 ± 4.1	0.202‡
Females	17	11	0.430^a
Joint involvement			0.486†
Oligoarticular (Oligoarticular persistent)	7	7
Polyarticular (Oligoarticular extended + polyarticular)	13 (8 + 5)	8 (4 + 4)
ANA	12	8	0.693†
Previous uveitis	4	0	0.119^a
Type of clinical remission			0.129^a
On medication	17	9
Mean time on clinical remission ± SD	1.2 ± 0.5 years	2.6 ± 3.2 years	0.064‡
CHAQ median (min – max)	0 (0–0.375)	0 (0–0.375)	0.805‡
Global physician’s VAS median (min – max)	0 (0–1)^b	0 (0)	0.805‡
Global parents or patient’s VAS median (min – max)	0 (0–4)	0 (0–5)	0.352‡
ESR mm³/h mean ± SD	7.5 ± 5.7	6 ± 3.5	0.587‡
CRP mg/dL mean ± SD	0.25 ± 0.15	0.23 ± 0.14	0.730‡

SD standard deviation, JIA juvenile idiopathic arthritis, ANA antinuclear antibody, ESR erythrocyte sedimentation rate, CRP C-reactive protein, CHAQ Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire, VAS visual analogue scale
^aFisher’s test, † chi-squared test, ‡ Mann-Whitney test
^bOne patient received a Global physician’s VAS of 1 due to joint limitation explained by previous joint damage and not due to active disease at the time of evaluation

ISSN: 1546-0096