Arthritis in childhood: a report on 65 consecutive cases observed at the University Hospital of the West Indies

In a two-year period (October 1985 - September 1987), 65 children presented to the Child Health Department and/or rheumatology clinic at the University Hospital with arthritis. Eighteen children (28 percent) had juvenile chronic arthritis, ten (15 percent) rheumatic fever, eight (12 percent) systemic lupus erythematosus and thirteen (20 percent) had self-limiting arthritis. Systemic onset of juvenile chronic arthritis occurred only in one child; nine children has polyarticular and eight pauci-articular onset of disease. The self-limiting arthritis was difficult to differentiate from juvenile chronic arthritis; therefore serological testing for bacterial and viral infections should be performed before anti-rheumatic therapy is undertaken. Arthritis in childhood is not uncommon in Jamaica. However, the outcome appears to be generally favourable except in a few cases of juvenile chronic arthritis (AU)

Deformities of bone and joint in St. Vincent - abstract

This retrospective study assesses the types and incidence of bone deformities seen by a single surgeon from 1964 to 1983, in the island os St. Vincent, with a population of 107,000. The data were obtained from the clinical and operation records, the private library of clinical photographs, and x-ray films. The deformities were congenital (57 percent), post-traum (12.4 percent), infective (6.5 percent), neoplastic (0.8 percent), degenerative (15.3 percent), deficiency (0.2 percent) and idiopathic (7.8 percent). Many congenital deformities were not diagnosed in infancy and were acknowledged only in later childhood and hence were untreated. A notable example was congenital dislocation of the hip. Others, such as talipes equino-varus, though acknowledged, were either not treated or improperly treated. There was a surprising number of preventable acquired deformities. Many were the result of neglect or gross mismanagement of cases of trauma; while others were due to failure to diagnose and hence manage certain conditions such a Perthes' disease and adolescent coxa vora. The prognosis of many of these deformities could be improved by careful routine examination of the newborn infant by midwives and family and hospital practioners, by educating mothers to take their infants to the family doctor on suspicion of any abnormality, by the recruiting of poperly trained doctors for the districts and hospitals, and by the provision of orthopaedic sugeons preferably at the local level or even on a regional bais (AU)

Calcification of articular cartilage

Idiopathic calcification of articular cartilages is described in a Jamaican woman of thirty-one years who had intermittent joint pains for ten years and who had evidence of past gonococcal infection. She was otherwise normal. The etiology of the condition is unknown. Previous literature is reviewed. (Summary)