Samia Naz, Rabia Aslam, Ehsan-ullah, Farhana Shahzad, Asma Mushtaq, Tahir Masood Ahmad, Shakila Zaman.
Association of erythrocyte sedimentation rate and c-reactive proteins with active disease in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
Pak Paed J Jan ;38(1):24-30.

Objective: To determine the association of serum C-reactive proteins (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) with active disease in-patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). Patients and Methods: This was a cross-sectional analytical study conducted at Rheumatology outpatient clinic and Department of Immunology & Serology, The Children’s Hospital and Institute of Child Health, Lahore. All patients who fulfilled the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for JRA were enrolled. An ACR 20 improvement criterion was used to define disease remission and those who fulfilled the ACR20 improvement criteria were enrolled in remission group. Laboratory investigations such as CRP and ESR were done. Statistical analysis was done using SAS (10.3 version). Results: A total of 70 patients were enrolled, out of which 74.3% did not show remission. The mean age at presentation was 9.94 years. There were more female patients (57.1%)as compared to male patients (42.9%). Polyarthritis was the most common type (44.3%) followed by oligoarthritis (34.3%) and systemic onset disease (24.3%). Binary logistic regression showed that active disease in patients of JRA was significantly associated with increased duration of disease at presentation (p=0.041), positive CRP (p=0.001) and increased ESR (p=0.002). Conclusion: Increased CRP and ESR are good parameters to predict active disease in JRA patients.

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