Adult-onset Still's disease: a review

This article is an attempt to review recent literature regarding pathogenesis and clinical and laboratory findings in adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD).

A search was conducted in PubMed and Ovid for English language publications, using individual or linked search terms "adult-onset Still's disease," "adult Still's disease," "Still's disease," "AOSD," and other related terms, from 1996 to 2009, and the clinically relevant articles were subsequently selected.

More than 1000 titles were reviewed by the authors, and the most important concepts were selected from 143 full-text articles.

Adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) is a rare systemic inflammatory disorder of unknown etiology and pathogenesis, usually presenting with high spiking fever accompanied by systemic manifestations. The disease is an entity with heterogeneous pathology; and diverse suggested etiologies, clinical manifestations and prognoses. There is no single diagnostic test for AOSD; rather, the diagnosis is based on a set of criteria, the most important of which are indeed clinical, but they also include paraclinical ones. Treatment aims at both minimizing inflammation and halting disease progression. For the former, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have limited efficacy; so glucocorticoids in conjunction with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs are also used. Novel therapeutic approaches such as anti-tumor necrosis factor blockade and monoclonal antibodies are promising.