Abstract

Objectives. Chronic arthropathies are a group of diseases that share the clinical manifestation of chronic joint lesions: tumefaction, pain, reduced mobility. The authors have proposed a clinical presentation and biological characteristics of the patients with chronic joint damage and the etiopathogenic classification.

Material and method. The studied group was represented by 38 patients with chronic joint conditions, admitted in the Medical Genetics Department and 1 st  Pediatric Clinic of the Emergency Children Hospital in Cluj-Napoca, over a period between 2000 - 2009. In order to include the etiopathogenic arthropathies in all patients clinical examination and laboratory tests selected according to the clinical features were performed.

Results. In our study, 22 patients were diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (9 patients with rheumatoid-factor-negative polyarthritis, 2 patients with rheumatoid- factor-positive polyarthritis, 6 patients had the oligoarthritis and 5 were diagnosed with systemic arthritis, 12 with mucopolysaccharidosis (type I, IIB, IVB and VII in a number of 3, 7, 1 and 1 patients, respectively) and 4 with haemophilic arthropathy (one patient with a severe form of von Willebrand disease and 3 patients with severe A Haemophilia).

Conclusion. In our group we demonstrated as etiologic and pathogenic subtypes of chronic arthritis the following: juvenile idiopathic arthritis in 57.87 % of the patients, mucopolysaccharidosis in 31.75% of the subjects and haemophillic arthropathy in 10.52%. The early diagnosis of the etiopathogenic form of chronic arthritis allowed the specific therapy and is essential for the favourable clinical evolution.

Keywords

arthropathy, etiopathogenic, children