الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 16 |  |  |
| | | from | 16 | | |
Abstract
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis( JIA) represents a heterogeneous group of autoimmune diseases. It arises before 16 years of age and lasts more than 6 months.
This retrospective comparative study aimed To evaluate the effect of methotrexate compared to the effect of methotrexate and leflunomide combination in pediatric patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis for 6 months follow up as evaluated by DAS 28 (Disease Activity Score 28).
The study was done on 60 pediatric patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis aging under sixteen years old. patients were diagnosed according to the up dated International League of Association for Rheumatology (ILAR) criteria Patients were recruited from Immunology and pediatric outpatient clinics in Beni-Suef University Hospital.
Patients were divided into two groups, group 1:thirty patients on methotrexate alone, group 2:Thirty patients on methotrexate and leflunomide.
All patients were subjected to (history taking, clinical examination, laboratory investigation.
In group 1,11were males(36.7%) and 19 were females( 63.3%) with a male to female ratio (M:F)of 0.57.In group 2,10 were male and 20 were female with a male to female ratio(M:F)1:2.
The mean of ages in group 1 of JIA patients was 9.8 ± 3.7 years ,while the mean of ages of group 2 was 9.5 ± 4.1.
The mean age of onset of JIA patients in group 1 was 5.9 ± 4.1 years while the mean age of onset of JIA patients in group 2 was 5.2 ± 3.3 years.
According to disease pattern among both study groups ,group 1 were divided in to polyarticular 18 cases (60%),oligoarticular 6 cases (20%) and systemic onset 6 cases(20%).While in group 2 there were poly articular 16 cases (53.3%),oligoarticular 8 cases (26.7%) and systemic onset 6 cases (20%).
In our study at base line, after 3 months and 6 months of follow up between both studies groups ( p-value >0.05) there were no significant abnormality detected in C.B.C, liver enzymes and DAS 28 score for
disease activity.
In this study there is an increasing in the percentage of remission and mild disease activity while there is decreasing in moderate and high disease activity along time of follow up among both study groups.
In group 2 who treated by MTX and LEF There is an increasing in remission and mild disease activity cases than in group 1 who treated by MTX alone as in group 1 after 6 months follow up there is 2 cases remission, 13 patient with mild disease activity, 15 patient with moderate disease activity but no patient with high disease activity.
In group 2 who treated by MTX and LEF there is 4 cases of remission and 16 case with mild disease activity and 10 cases with moderate disease activity and no cases with high disease activity.