Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis: The Saudi Experience

We retrospectively studied the charts of 115 Arab children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), all of whom satisfied the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for JRA. They were followed between 1978 and 1993 at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre and King Khalid University Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. All patients were followed up for at least 18 months. The female to male ratio was 1.2:1, and the mean age of onset of the disease was six years. Ninety of the patients were Saudis and the remainder were Middle Eastern Arabs. The mode of onset was systemic in 44%, polyarticular in 30%, and periarticular in 26%. Chronic uveitis was found in only two of the children (1.7%). Antinuclear antibody (ANA) was determined in 96 patients and was positive in 29 (30%). Amyloidosis was not detected in this study population. The clinical and laboratory manifestations of this disease are presented. This review shows that the spectrum of clinical presentation differs in Arab children from those in the West. Systemic and polyarticular onset subtypes were more common, and the incidence of uveitis and amyloidosis was lower. Whether this reflects a genuine difference in the pattern of the disease, or is due to bias in referral pattern, remains to be detected. The answer is currently being sought through an ongoing prospective study.