Signs and Symptoms
Symptoms of JIA are often non-specific initially, and include lethargy, reduced physical activity, and poor appetite. The first manifestation, particularly in young children, may be limping. Children may also become quite ill, presenting with flu-like symptoms that persist. The cardinal clinical feature is persistent swelling of the affected joint(s), which commonly include the knee, ankle, wrist and small joints of the hands and feet. Swelling may be difficult to detect clinically, especially for joints such as those of the spine, sacroiliac joints, shoulder, hip and jaw, where imaging techniques such as ultrasound or MRI are very useful.
Pain is an important symptom. Morning stiffness that improves later in the day is a common feature. Late effects of arthritis include joint contracture (stiff, bent joint) and joint damage. Children with JIA vary in the degree to which they are affected by particular symptoms.Children may also have swollen joints.
Read more about this topic: Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
Famous quotes containing the words signs and, signs and/or symptoms:
“The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 26:8.
“The highway presents an interesting study of American roadside advertising. There are signs that turn like windmills; startling signs that resemble crashed airplanes; signs with glass lettering which blaze forth at night when automobile headlight beams strike them; flashing neon signs; signs painted with professional touch; signs crudely lettered and misspelled.... They extol the virtues of ice creams, shoe creams, cold creams;...”
—For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“A certain kind of rich man afflicted with the symptoms of moral dandyism sooner or later comes to the conclusion that it isn’t enough merely to make money. He feels obliged to hold views, to espouse causes and elect Presidents, to explain to a trembling world how and why the world went wrong. The spectacle is nearly always comic.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)