Assessment of vascular function in systemic onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis

An increased incidence of cardiovascular disease has been found in rheumatic disorders. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common chronic rheumatic disease in children. Prolonged immunological inflammatory process leads these patients to an early onset of atherosclerosis. We aimed to assess the presence of early vascular dysfunction in patients with systemic onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) and investigate the role of therapy sJIA in vascular health. Thirty-three patients (22 males, 11 females) diagnosed with sJIA according to the International League of Associations for Rheumatology criteria were compared to 72 age- and sex-matched controls. None of the participants was overweight, obese, or had a history of hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, or cardiovascular disease. Arterial stiffness (As) was evaluated by measurement of carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index (AIx) with a Vicorder. The mean age of patients in this study was 9.96 ± 3.71 years (range 4–16 years) and the mean age of controls was 10.9 ± 3.52 years (range 4–19 years). These two groups were well matched for age, sex, and BMI. The mean age of patients at the onset of disease was 7.06 ± 3.9 years (range 3–15 years). The mean duration of disease and active disease was 79 ± 45 months (range 6–162 months) and 58 ± 49 months (range 1–101 months), respectively. The highest levels of PWV and AIx were found in the patient group. Seven patients had had macrophage activation syndrome at presentation. In these patients, vascular changes were higher than other patients (6.30 ± 0.42 m/s vs 5.17 ± 0.55 m/s, p = 0.01, respectively). The corticosteroid therapy was found associated with higher PWV, (p < 0.05), while there was no difference between vascular parameters and use of non-steroid therapies (methotrexate (MTX), anti-TNF alfa agents). We also find statistically significant correlation between PWV and disease duration (p = 0.003, r = 0.45). Vascular function is impaired in patients with sJIA at a very young age. Vascular dysfunction may be partly attributed to the effects of disease-related characteristics (inflammation, disease activity, and medications).