Background: Osteomyelitis can be difficult to diagnose and there has previously not been a prospective approach to identify all children in a defined geographic area. The aim of this study was to assess the annual incidence of osteomyelitis in children, describe the patient and disease characteristics in those with acute (< 14 days disease duration) and subacute osteomyelitis (≥ 14 days disease duration), and differentiate osteomyelitis patients from those with other acute onset musculoskeletal features.

The annual incidence of childhood arthritis was 71 per 100,000 children. We found several factors that may help in differentiating between subgroups of arthritis.

Objective. To compare muscle strength, physical health, and HLA-DRB1 allele carriage frequencies in patients with longstanding juvenile dermatomyositis (DM) with that of controls, and to determine the presence of and risk factors for muscle weakness and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-detected muscle damage in juvenile DM patients. Methods. Fifty-nine patients with juvenile DM examined a median of 16.8 years (range 2.0 -38.1 years) after disease onset were compared with 59 age-and sex-matched controls. Muscle strength/endurance was measured by manual muscle testing (MMT) and the Childhood Myositis Assessment Scale (CMAS); health status was measured by the Short Form 36. HLA-DRB1 alleles were determined by sequencing in patients and 898 healthy controls. In patients, disease activity/ damage was measured by the Disease Activity Score (DAS), Myositis Damage Index (MDI), Health Assessment Questionnaire/Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire, and MRI scans of the thigh muscles. Early disease characteristics were obtained by chart review. Results. Patients had lower muscle strength/endurance (P < 0.001 for both) and physical health (P ‫؍‬ 0.014) and increased HLA-DRB1*0301 (P ‫؍‬ 0.01) and DRB1*1401 (P ‫؍‬ 0.003) compared with controls. In patients, persistent muscle weakness was found in 42% with MMT (score <78) and in 31% with the CMAS (score <48), whereas MRI-detected muscle damage was found in 52%. Muscle weakness and MRI-detected muscle damage were predicted by MDI muscle damage and a high DAS 1 year postdiagnosis. Conclusion. A median of 16.8 years after disease onset, juvenile DM patients were weaker than the controls; muscle weakness/reduced endurance was found in 31-42% of patients and MRI-detected muscular damage was found in 52% of patients. The outcomes were predicted by high disease activity and muscle damage present 1 year postdiagnosis.

Objectives: Ultrasonography is an effective, low-cost, low-threshold and convenient diagnostic tool in childhood arthritis, but its value in temporomandibular joint (TMJ) involvement is not clear. The purpose of our study was to explore the reliability of ultrasonography to assess TMJ inflammation using contrast-enhanced MRI as reference standard, in order to deduce cut-off values for TMJ capsular width to detect enhanced synovial thickening (synovitis). Methods: 124 ultrasonography and MRI examinations in 55 patients [mean age 12.4 ± 3.5 years (±standard deviation)], the majority obtained within 1 day, were scored for subcondylar and condylar capsular width (ultrasonography images) and amount of synovitis (MR images). The correlations of these findings were calculated. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, with MRI findings as reference standard, was obtained. Results:The correlation between ultrasonography-assessed capsular width and MRIassessed amount of synovitis was moderate both at the subcondylar and condylar level [Spearman's rho (r): 0.483; p , 0.001 and 0.347; p , 0.001 respectively]. The ROC curve indicated the best discriminatory ability at the subcondylar level with an area under the curve of 0.77 (95% confidence interval 0.69-0.85) and a cut-off value of 1.2 mm (sensitivity 72%, specificity 70%) for the capsular width. Conclusions: A moderate correlation between ultrasonography-assessed capsular width and MRI-assessed synovitis was found in childhood arthritis with the best discriminatory ability at the subcondylar level. This indicates that ultrasonography may be a valuable diagnostic tool in the initial assessment of TMJ inflammation.

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