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July is Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month
Juvenile Arthritis (JA)
Juvenile arthritis (JA), also known as pediatric rheumatic disease, isn’t a specific disease. It’s an umbrella term to describe the inflammatory and rheumatic diseases that develop in children under the age of 16. These conditions affect hundreds of thousands of kids and teens in the United States.
Most kinds of JA are autoimmune or autoinflammatory diseases. That means the immune system, which is supposed to fight against foreign invaders like viruses and germs, instead releases inflammatory chemicals that attack healthy cells and tissue. In most JA cases this causes joint inflammation, swelling, pain and tenderness but some types of JA have few or no joint symptoms or only affect the skin and internal organs.
The exact causes of JA are unknown, but researchers believe that certain genes may cause JA when activated by a virus, bacteria or other external factors. There is no evidence that foods, toxins, allergies or lack of vitamins cause the disease.
Here are some of the symptoms and health effects of JA:
- Joints: May cause joints to look red or swollen and feel stiff, painful, tender and warm.
- Skin: Skin symptoms may include a scaly red rash (psoriatic), light spotted pink rash (systemic), butterfly shaped rash across the bridge of the nose and cheeks (lupus) or thick, hardened patches of skin (scleroderma).
- Eyes: Dryness, pain, redness, sensitivity to light and trouble seeing properly caused by uveitis (chronic eye inflammation).
- Internal organs: Can affect internal organs such as the digestive tract (diarrhea and bloating), lungs (shortness of breath) and heart.
- Other symptoms: Include fatigue (feeling extremely tired or rundown), appetite loss and high spiking fever.
The most common types of JA include:
- Juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis is the most common form of juvenile arthritis and includes six types.
- Juvenile myositis. An inflammatory disease that causes muscle weakness. There are two types: Juvenile polymyositis and juvenile dermatomyositis, which also causes rash on the eyelids and knuckles.
- Juvenile lupus. An autoimmune disease that can affect the joints, skin, internal organs (i.e. heart, kidneys, lungs) and other areas of the body.
- Juvenile scleroderma. Scleroderma, which literally means “hard skin,” describes a group of conditions that causes the skin to tighten and harden.
- Vasculitis. This type of disease causes inflammation of the blood-vessels, which can lead to heart complications.
- Fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome that can cause widespread muscle pain and stiffness, along with fatigue, disrupted sleep and other symptoms.
A pediatrician may start to determine what’s causing symptoms, but parents may be referred to a rheumatologist, a doctor with specialized training in treating arthritis.
For more information on Juvenile Arthritis, read here.
