European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Arthritis in children has different phenotype, course and prognosis. Arthritis is a inflammatory condition in the synovium of a joint and is derived from ARTHRON, a Greek word meaning joint and ITIS meaning inflammation. Arthritis is defined as a clinical finding of swelling within a joint, or limitation in the range of joint movement with joint pain or tenderness, excluding primarily mechanical disorders and other identifiable causes.(62) The first recognized description of chronic arthritis in childhood is, according to Schaller, found in an English textbook of pediatrics by Thomas Phaer “The book of Chyldren” from 1545 referring to the “stiffness of limes” thought to be a result of exposing children to the cold (58,60). Pediatric rheumatology is comparatively new sub specialiity in field of pediatrics with a history from 19th century onwards only. Materials and Method: Our study is a cross sectional observational population-based study of a cohort of patients with features of arthritis ,admitted to pediatric inpatient’s department of MKCG Medical college, Berhempur. RESEARCH/STUDY SETTING- admitted patients in department of pediatrics MKCG Medical College, Berhempur. Patient who fulfill inclusion criteria shall be considered as sample and the sample size is 49. 49 Cases admitted to pediatric in-patient’s department with the chief complain of pain and swelling of joints with limited range of motion in the age group 0- 14years were included in the study. Results: The above table shows most of cases of arthritis were in the age group 6-14yrs accounting for 37 out of 49 cases (75.52%) and 0-1yr, 2-5yr age group contributed 6 cases (12.24%). Acute and sub acute form of arthritis constituted more than 80% of the cases contributing 40.82% each in comparison to chronic arthritis which constituted only 18.36%. Septic arthritis was the most common form of acute arthritis contributing 45% of cases followed by SCA,HP,HSP and Viral arthritis contributing 10% each and ALL, HFS, TS contributing 5% each. RF was the most common sub acute arthritis constituting 20% of the cases followed by ReA, SA, SCA and JIA(P) accounting for 10% each and ALL, HIV-A, HP, HSP, IE, PSRA,RR and VIRAL contributing 5% each. Conclusion: SA arthritis was the most common etiology in acute arthritis category where as JIA was most common in chronic arthritis group. Wide range of systemic causes like leukemia, hemophilia, sickle cell anemia, scleroderma, tuberculosis and HSP presented as arthritis in children, however detailed clinical examination and appropriate investigation will clinch the definitive diagnosis. Early diagnosis, timely intervention and rehabilitation will definitely decrease the morbidity due to chronic arthritis.