Risk of infection and disease activity of patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis treated with and without biologics

Abstract

Objective: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis is the most common rheumatic disease children suffer from. Many questions arise regarding the risk of infection related to the disease and to the treatments with conventional and biological DMARDs. We aimed to assess the rate of infection in JIA patients treated with and without biologics and confirm the link between the infection and the disease activity. Patients and Methods: The risk of infection was evaluated in 2 groups (biological vs. conventional DMARDs). JIA activity was assessed using JADAS-10, physician and parent VAS. Results: Two minimal infections were noted under conventional DMARDs and 5 infections under biologics giving an infection rate ratio of 1.9. No correlation was found between the disease activity assessed by JADAS-10 and the risk of infection. The infection rate was higher in the biological group compared to the conventional DMARDs group (62.5% vs.33%), but the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.6). Conclusions: Our results suggest no significant difference in infection rates between JIA subjects treated with and without biologics. Larger scale studies of the relationship between infection rates, type of treatment and disease activity are needed.

Keywords

• infection
• biologic dmards
• juvenile idiopathic arthritis