Stratification and Monitoring of Juvenile Arthritis Patients by Synovial Proteome Profile

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) comprises a group of chronic, childhood onset, autoimmune diseases with variable clinical presentations, outcomes and therapeutic responses. It is known that joint damage may progress despite apparent decreased inflammatory activity by conventional laboratory and clinical assessments. The difference in outcome could be influenced by the degree of systemic or local inflammation. Predicting the progression and consequence of JIA inflammatory pathology is therefore a priority to achieve optimal clinical management. Although the main clinical manifestation of arthritis is destructive joint inflammation, many other organs may be targeted by an underlying systemic character. A holistic view inclusive of local and systemic aspects of the disease is more likely to achieve satisfactory disease resolution. We postulate that a small subset of biomarkers may exist, which can make a distinction between disease subtypes depending o