Juvenile idiopathic arthritis and Wegener granulomatosis: causal or casual relationship?

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis and Wegener granulomatosis: causal or casual relationship?

The association of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and Wegener granulomatosis (WG) is extremely rare. To date, only 3 patients with JIA accompanied by WG were described in the literature. Here we report a girl who had been followed-up for RF positive JIA for 3 years and developed WG at the age of 15. She started suffering from symmetrical arthritis of knees and wrists when she was 12. The t...

Multicentric Castleman's Disease (CD) in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) treated with etanercept: coincidence or causal relationship?

Association of CD and RA is widely described in adults, but has never been reported in children with JIA. We report a 13 years old girl with a 6 years history of polyarticular JIA treated with Methotrexate (MTX) since diagnosis and after 2 years, in April 2004, started on etanercept. On this treatment, patient presented important clinical improvement which allowed steroids withdrawal and progre...

Multicentric Carpotarsal Osteolysis Mimicking Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

Background Multicentric carpotarsal osteolysis (MCTO), a skeletal dysplasia presents in early childhood mimicking juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). Recognition of this syndrome is essential to avoid unnecessary treatment with immunosuppressive agents because of different course and treatment. Case Report A 3-year-old boy presented with swelling and restriction of right wrist joint and left ...

Parvovirus B19 and chronic arthritis--causal or casual association?

Suicide Rates and Antidepressant Prescribing: A Casual or Causal Relationship?

I n an ecological study in this issue of PLoS Medicine , Milane and colleagues found a temporal association between prescription of specifi c serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants and suicide rates in the United States [1]. Their study addresses a subject of great public health importance and clinical interest. The researchers asked the question: was the use of antidepressants ass...