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OBJECTIVE: To evaluate disease course and clinical usefulness in some categories of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) by applying newly developed Wallace definitions of remission off drugs. METHODS: In a retrospective study, charts of patients with chronic form of primary (idiopathic) arthritis followed from our center since 1970 were reviewed and clinical/laboratory variables were collected for further analysis. RESULTS: The cohort included 761 eligible patients [516 (67.8%) female, 245 (32.2%) male] with JIA. Mean disease onset age (± standard deviation) was 6.25 ± 4.4 years (range 0.5–15.9). Disease mean duration to last visit was 10.02 ± 4.31 years. Followup mean period was 7.6 ± 6.4 years (range 1.5–35 yrs). A total of 247 (32.46%) patients achieved remission according to criteria [persistent oligoarthritis 153 (42.9%); extended oligoarthritis 15 (13.1%); seronegative polyarthritis 21 (22.4%); systemic arthritis 33 (33.7%); enthesitis related arthritis (ERA) plus juvenile psoriatic arthritis (JPsA) 25 (33.4%)]. No patients with seropositive polyarthritis achieved remission status (p < 0.001). In remitted patients the mean survival function (± standard error of the mean) before relapse calculated by Kaplan-Meier was of 20.9 (± 1.3) months overall: 21.7 (± 0.46) in persistent oligoarthritis, 25.0 (± 6.6) in extended oligoarthritis, 26.7 (± 13.2) in seronegative polyarthritis, and 17.6 (± 2.44) in ERA+JPsA (p > 0.1). CONCLUSION: In our cohort about one-third of cases obtained a remission episode in 4 decades of observation, with a significant difference between oligoarthritis and other categories (p < 0.001) using the Kaplan-Meier method; the remission status duration before a relapse has been about 20 months, without a significant difference between JIA categories.

OBJECTIVE: As continuity of care in our institution allows longterm followup studies, we reviewed the files of all consecutive patients with juvenile chronic (idiopathic) arthritis (JCA) followed since 1970 to establish the frequency of remission. METHODS: Charts of all patients with JCA were reviewed. Relevant variables were entered into a customized database. The presence of remission (lack of signs of disease activity in the absence of antirheumatic therapy for at least 6 mo) during the disease course and at the last visit was assessed. RESULTS: The cohort included 683 patients, 463 females and 220 males. According to the disease onset, 420 had oligoarticular, 108 polyarticular (23 rheumatoid factor positive), and 88 systemic disease; 67 had a juvenile spondyloarthropathy (SpA). For all 4 categories the mean followup period was about 10 years. At the last visit 224 cases were in remission (32.8%). Remission rate was scarcely influenced by age at disease onset, but differed in the different disease categories. Of the total group of 683 patients, 153 (22.4%) were lost to followup (no control for at least 2 years). For all 4 categories the remission rate at the last visit was higher in patients who had been lost to followup: 42.3% versus 29.0% for systemic onset JCA, 20.8% versus 16.5% for polyarticular onset JCA, 44.7% versus 33.6% for pauciarticular onset JCA, and 66.7% versus 26.8% for juvenile SpA. The probability of attaining remission decreased in proportion to delay in entering the tertiary care center (from 35.7% to 22.8%). The rate of remission reached its peak after 5-10 years of followup, after which the trend reversed. CONCLUSION: Childhood arthritis achieved remission in only about one-third of our cases, with differences among disease categories based on the diagnosis.