Background: Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) is the most common chronic rheumatic disease in childhood. Impaired salivary gland function has been previously reported in children with JIA.

Objectives: To explore the possible subclinical affection of major salivary glands in pediatric patients with JIA by means of musculoskeletal Ultrasound (US) and to correlate the findings with disease activity and inflammatory indices.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study including 28 children diagnosed as JIA according to ILAR criteria and 20 healthy controls. Full history taking, general and local examination of the affected joints and US assessment of major salivary glands were done for both groups.

Results: Ages of participants ranged from 5 to 16 years, with a mean of 11.04± 2.968 years 15 (31.25%) of them were males and 33 (68.75%) were females. According to Grey-scale score, there were 16 patients (57.1%) with normal parenchyma (grade 0), 4 patients (14.3%) with minimal change (grade 1), 2 patients (7.1%) with moderate change (grade 2), and 6 patients (21.4%) with severe change (grade 3) in JIA group. PD signal has been detected in the submandibular glands of only two patients with systemic onset JIA. No abnormality has been detected in the healthy control group. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between Grey-scale total score with ESR (r=0.694, P < 0.001), juvenile arthritis disease activity score (JADAS) (r= 0.713, P < 0.001), and parents‘ disease assessment (r= 0.678, P < 0.003).

Conclusion: Ultrasound detected subclinical salivary gland abnormalities are frequent in JIA patients and are associated with disease activity. However, further large scale studies are needed to support these preliminary results.

REFERENCES:

[1] Defabianis P, Garofalo F, Romano F. Salivary glands involvement: a new indicator of juvenile idiopathic oligoarticular arthritis (preliminary results). Rheumatology (Oxford). 2021 Sep 1;60(9):4379-4383. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keaa891. PMID: 33404649.

Acknowledgements: NIL.

Disclosure of Interests: None declared.