TY - JOUR T1 - Patterns of clinical joint inflammation in juvenile idiopathic arthritis JF - RMD Open JO - RMD Open DO - 10.1136/rmdopen-2022-002941 VL - 9 IS - 1 SP - e002941 AU - Sascha L Heckert AU - Petra C E Hissink-Muller AU - J Merlijn van den Berg AU - Dieneke Schonenberg-Meinema AU - Lisette W A van Suijlekom-Smit AU - Marion A J van Rossum AU - Yvonne Koopman AU - Rebecca ten Cate AU - Danielle M C Brinkman AU - Tom W J Huizinga AU - Cornelia F Allaart AU - Sytske Anne Bergstra Y1 - 2023/03/01 UR - http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/9/1/e002941.abstract N2 - Objectives We studied patterns of joint inflammation in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) to assess whether joint activity recurs locally in the same joints.Methods Joints of 91 patients of the BeSt for Kids study, a treat-to-target trial for children with recent-onset oligoarticular, rheumatoid factor-negative polyarticular and psoriatic JIA, were clinically assessed during 2 years (10 study visits). The association between joint inflammation at baseline and later inflammation in the same joint was assessed using a multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression model at joint level. With a Poisson model, the association between baseline joint inflammation and the number of study visits at which the same joint was recurrently inflamed was tested.Results Of the 6097 joints studied, 15% (897) was clinically inflamed at baseline. In 42% (377/897) of those joints, inflammation recurred during follow-up. Joint inflammation at baseline was statistically significantly associated with joint inflammation during follow-up in the same joint (OR 3.9, 95% CI 3.5 to 4.4) and specifically with the number of episodes of recurrent joint inflammation (IRR 1.6, 95% CI 1.2 to 2.1).Conclusion In JIA, joint inflammation has the tendency to recur multiple times in joints that are clinically inflamed at disease onset. This indicates that local factors might play a role in the processes contributing to the occurrence of JIA flares.Data are available upon reasonable request. ER -