Longitudinal growth attainments of Indian boys with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

The objective is to study the pattern of distance and velocity growth in terms of weight and height in adolescent boys with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA). This study was conducted on children diagnosed to have JRA (Cassidy and Petty in Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, WB Saunders Co., Philadelphia, 2005) at the Pediatric Rheumatology and Immunology Clinic of Advanced Pediatrics Centre, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh. A total of 203 observations made on 70 boys with JRA, between 9 and 17 years of age, comprised the sample for this prospective mixed-longitudinal growth study. Each subject was measured for body weight and standing height using standardized anthropometric techniques (Eveleth and Tanner in Worldwide variation in human growth, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1990) at half yearly age intervals. All anthropometric measurements were carried out in the Growth Laboratory of Advanced Pediatrics Centre. Boys with polyarticular and systemic onset types of JRA in general measured lighter than their pauciarticular counterparts throughout the period of study. Height attainments in boys with polyarticular and systemic onset JRA measured shorter than their pauciarticular counterparts till 15 years and 12 years, respectively, where-after they became comparable to boys with pauciarticular JRA. As compared to normal Indian (Bhalla and Kumar in Int J Anthropol 18:113-125, 2003; Aggarwal et al. in Indian Pediatr 29:1203-1282, 1992) and American (Ogden et al. in Pediatrics 109:45-60, 2002) counterparts boys representing all categories of JRA remained lighter and shorter. Onset of Peak Height Velocity (PHV) in boys with polyarticular JRA (i.e. 12.5 years) was delayed by 1 year as compared to boys with pauciarticular JRA (i.e. 11.5 years). Attainment of Peak Weight Velocity (PWV) in boys with polyarticular JRA (i.e. 13.5 years) was also delayed by 1 year when compared to those with pauciarticular type (i.e. 12.5 years). In conclusion, weight and height growth attainments in Indian adolescent boys afflicted with different categories of JRA in general remained impaired as compared to their normal counterparts. However, the magnitude of growth deficit experienced by them appears to be a disease severity related phenomenon. This is the first study of its kind from a developing country.