EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES AND CLINICAL ANALYSIS OF RHEUMATIC DISEASES AMONG JAPANESE CHILDREN

Satoshi Fujikawa

Division of Pediatrics, Institute of Rheumatology, Tokyo Women’s Medical College, Tokyo, Japan

Purpose: Estimation of the incidence and prevalence of rheumatic patients among Japanese children and analysis of clinical pictures of these diseases.

Methods: We sent a questionnaire to the department of pediatrics of 1,290 hospitals in Japan, asking the number of children with rheumatic diseases in the past 10 years, and analyzed clinical pictures of these registered children.

Results: By this survey, 1606 cases with JRA, 906 cases with SLE, 320 cases with DM/PM, 93 cases with MCTD, 70 cases with Sjogren’s syndrome, 28 cases with SSc, 25 cases with Takayasu’s aortitis, 51 cases with Behcet’s disease were registered. The estimated crude prevalence of rheumatic diseases per 100,000 childhood population were, JRA, 9.9 : SLE, 0.47 : DM/PM, 2.0 : SSc, 0.2 : Sjogren’s syndrome, 0.4 : MCTD, 0.6 : Takayasu’s aortitis, 0.2 and Behcet’s disease, 0.3. The clinical pictures of registered 570 cases with JRA were analyzed. The subtypes of these cases were as follow; systemic type, 310 ases: polyarthritis, 140 cases (RF+70 : RF – 70) and oligoarthritis 120 cases (ANA+uneitis 7 : RF+, 13 : HLA B27+, none and extended type, 15). According to the analysis of 373 children with SLE, 52% of the cases were treated by methylpredonisoline pulse therapy. Five years survival rate of SLE was 95.9%.

In conclusion, I hope to extend the epidemiological this studies into other Asian countries to compare the results from Asian to those of Europe in order to determine if there are any racial difference and hereditary factor contributing these diseases.