Etanercept treatment in juvenile idiopathic arthritis: the Polish registry.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the long-term safety and efficacy of etanercept treatment in Polish patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). MATERIAL/METHODS: The study involved patients, fulfilling the JIA criteria of the International League of Associations of Rheumatology (ILAR), who were started on etanercept therapy after methotrexate and other synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) had proven ineffective. Patient data were collected in an electronic registry. Disease improvement was assessed based on Giannini's criteria. RESULTS: The statistical analysis involved 188 patients. Significant improvement was observed in all clinical and laboratory parameters after the first month of therapy and was maintained in the following months. ACR Pediatric 30, 50, 70, 90, and 100 improvement was observed in 81.4%, 65.9%, 27.5%, 16.2%, and 15%, respectively, of patients after 3 months and in 94.7%, 88.4%, 62.1%, 34.7%, and 26.3%, respectively, after 24 months of treatment. Throughout the 72-month safety observation period, 1162 adverse events were reported; the exposure-adjusted AE rate was 2.96 per patient per year. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with various subtypes of JIA resistant to conventional DMARD treatment, etanercept resulted in significant and long-lasting improvements in disease activity. Combination treatment with etanercept and a DMARD was well tolerated.

[Diagnostics of joint pain in children--controversies]. / Diagnostyka bólów stawów u dzieci--kontrowersje.

Musculoskeletal symptoms can be a manifestation of varied conditions and ailments which are not connected with rheumatic diseases. The aim of the article is to present some controversial elements of differential diagnosis of joint pain in children. Insidious course of the disease can be a cause of diagnostic errors and delays in introducing effective treatment. The article recalls differentiation between rheumatic diseases and neoplastic diseases, osteonecrosis, fibromyalgia and growing pains.

[Drug susceptibility of Haemophilus sp. and Staphylococcus aureus strains colonizing respiratory tract in children with mucoviscidosis]. / Lekowrazliwosc szczepów Haemophilus sp. i Staphylococcusa aureus kolonizujacych drogi oddechowe u dzieci z mukowiscydoza.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of our studies was to isolate haemophili rods and S. aureus from children with mucoviscidosis and to assess antimicrobial agent susceptibility of the isolates. METHODS: Sputa and nasopharynx swabs from 12 children with mucoviscidosis were screened for the prevalence ofHaemophilus sp. and S. aureus. Susceptibility to antimicrobial agents was performed by agar diffusion method using appropriate media. Beta-lactamase activity was determined with the nitrocefin discs, macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B resistance using D-test. MAIN OBSERVATIONS: Of 12 mucoviscidosis-positive patients, 7 (58.33%) were colonisated by haemophili rods (a total of 8 H. parainfluenzae, 2 H. influenzae or 2 Haemophilus sp. isolates) and by S. aureus (8 isolates), in these species were isolated alone or in mixed cultures. Two ampicillin-resistant Haemophilus sp. but without beta-lactamases production were obtained. Also two methicillin resistant S. aureus with constitutive phenotype of resistance to macrolides-lincosamides and streptogramins B isolates and two methicillin-sensitive (with constitutive and inducible resistance to macrolides-lincosamides and streptogramins B) were isolated.