[Myelogram in systemic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis]

A retrospective study was done to evaluate bone marrow smears in seven children with systemic onset juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). Eosinophilia and monocytosis were found in all the patients and in five there also were increased proportions of mononuclear basophils. Anemia is common in this disease and erythroid hypoplasia was present in six cases. Four patients had increased numbers of plasma cells and three had histiocytes with hemophagocytic activity. We did not find hemophagocytosis, as reported before, in bone marrow smears of JRA patients.