Discontinuation of etanercept after clinical remission in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Methods Among patients with JIA treated with ETA from 2000 (n = 46), we identified patients in remission defined by a sustained good clinical response according to physicians of our departments for at least 1,5 years and discontinued ETA. The disease course was evaluated using physician and parent/patients VAS for disease activity, active joints, joints with LOM, CHAQ, ESR, CRP. A bivariate analysis of the relationship between JIA subtype, sex, age at onset JIA, disease duration at start of ETA, MTX association, time on ETA (before tapering and total), clinical remission on ETA (defined by Wallace) and disease course was undertaken using the Chi-square or Fisher’s exact test and the Wilcoxon test.