Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is complex and heterogeneous disease, autoinflammatory and autoimmune, that is why much attention has been focused on discovery and potential usage of different biomarkers that could provide support in diagnostic and prognostic evaluations.

Biomarkers could play a major role to support initial diagnosis, allow disease monitoring and possibly indicate the reoccurrence of inflammatory response even before clinical manifestations. Such a candidate biomarker(s) should be validated and proven as highly sensitive, obtained by standardized methodology and evaluable in everyday clinical practice. Numerous publications provided rational for involvement of ultrasound and several inflammatory biomarkers as the clinically meaningful prediction panel for JIA. This multicenter international study in JIA patients involves selected pediatric rheumatology centers with expertise in the ultrasound examination of joints. Main coordinating centers will be in Serbia (Nis) and Italy (Genoa).

Aim of the study is to investigate sensitivity and predictive value of the multi-biomarker panel (clinical examination of the joints, ultrasound and inflammatory biomarkers) and to evaluate if this panel could be applied in limited number of joints in patients with oligoarticular and polyarticular JIA course to be representative as a new disease activity tool and outcome measure.



Study PI: Dr Dragana Lazarevic, Dr Clara Malattia