[Current therapy of polyarticular forms of juvenile idiopathic arthritis]. / Aktuelle Therapie der polyartikulären Verlaufsform der juvenilen idiopathischen Arthritis.

ABSTRACT

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common rheumatic disease in infancy and childhood. Approximately 20 % of patients with JIA suffer from the polyarticular form of the disease, which causes a substantial disease burden and long-term sequelae. Therapeutic approaches have used steroids and conventional disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) but over the last decade new drugs have become available for the treatment of JIA, in particular biologic DMARD. This article summarizes the current therapy options for polyarticular JIA.