A retrospective study of juvenile chronic arthritis.

During a 20 year period 214 patients had been admitted to a teaching hospital with a diagnosis of definite or possible juvenile chronic (rheumatoid) arthritis (JCA). Eighty-seven of these patients were reviewed clinically and were classified as having had JCA. Twelve of the 214 patients were later thought to have had rheumatic fever, while 12 had had an illness consistent with viral arthritis. There was a poor functional outcome in three subgroups of JCA: (i) seropositive polyarticular onset (ii) systemic onset, and (iii) pauciarticular onset, extending to polyarticular involvement. The prevalence of inflammatory eye disease was very low with no significant visual handicap detected in patients in this study.