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Juvenile Arthritis Research Paper

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Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis Usually when the word arthritis is brought up, most people would immediately think of older adult men and woman. What they do not know is that kids can have arthritis too. 294,000 American children under the age of 18 have arthritis (C ). Some terms that describe a child with arthritis include juvenile chronic arthritis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis is the most commonly used term in the United States. Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis is caused by a malfunction in the immune system, causing the synovial membrane to be attacked and targeted as a predator of the human body. This causes inflammation and after a while, could potentially cause damage to …show more content…

JRA can affect one or many joints, and in some cases the entire body (B). Pain, swelling, and stiffness in the joints are some other symptoms to JRA. (A) Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis can lead to complications with the child’s growth and eye inflammation (C). This disease is difficult to diagnose because a lot of children feeling these symptoms may not complain at first, so the swelling may not be as obvious when parents do recognize the pain. Diagnosis for JRA depends on mostly physical findings and past medical history. …show more content…

The most common form is pauciarticular, affecting about half of JRA kids. Some children with this type have abnormal proteins called antinuclear antibodies in their blood. Patients with the pauciarticular form of JRA usually outgrow arthritis by adulthood. Polyarticular is when there are five or more joints involved, affecting about 30% of JRA children. This form is often symmetrical, meaning it affects the same joints on both sides of the body. Similar to pauciarticular, there are special antibodies in the blood of these children called rheumatoid factors. The last form is called systematic, which affects the last 20% of children with JRA. This form may affect internal organs, as long as causing rashes on the outer skin. This form of JRA is often called Still’s disease

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