The key difference between juvenile idiopathic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis is that juvenile idiopathic arthritis is a type of arthritis commonly seen in kids and teens, while rheumatoid arthritis is a type of arthritis commonly seen in middle-aged people.
Arthritis is a disease that causes swelling in one or more joints. The main symptoms of arthritis are joint pain and stiffness. Typically, arthritis worsens with age. There are different types of arthritis, including ankylosing spondylitis, gout, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, osteoarthritis, psoriatic arthritis, reactive arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, septic arthritis, and thumb arthritis. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are two types of arthritis diseases.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
3. What is Rheumatoid Arthritis
4. Similarities – Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis
5. Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis vs Rheumatoid Arthritis in Tabular Form
6. Summary – Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis vs Rheumatoid Arthritis
What is Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis?
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a type of arthritis commonly seen in kids and teens. It is the most common type of arthritis in children under the age of 16. It is an autoimmune disease, meaning that the immune system attacks its own body tissues. Normally, the immune system attacks the synovium, which is the tissue lining around a joint. Inflamed synovium may make a joint feel pain. In the case of juvenile idiopathic arthritis, it has no known cause. However, both heredity and environmental factors seem to play a role.
The most common symptoms of juvenile arthritis are pain, swelling (knee swelling), stiffness, fever, swollen lymph nodes, and rash on the trunk. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis can affect one joint or many. The complications may include eye problems and growth problems. There are several subtypes of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. But main ones are systemic, oligoarticular, and polyarticular.
The type of juvenile idiopathic arthritis in a child is determined by the symptoms, including fever, rashes, and the number of joints affected. Moreover, this medical condition can be diagnosed through blood tests (erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, antinuclear antibody, rheumatoid factor, cyclic citrullinated peptide) and imaging scans (X-ray, MRI). Furthermore, the treatment options include medications (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, biological agents such as etanercept, adalimumab, golimumab, infliximab), physical occupational therapy, and surgery.
What is Rheumatoid Arthritis?
Rheumatoid arthritis is a type of arthritis commonly seen in middle-aged people. It is a chronic inflammatory and autoimmune disorder that affects the patient’s joints. In some people, rheumatoid arthritis can damage a wide variety of body systems, including skin, eyes, lungs, heart, and blood vessels. It has been identified that the presence of certain genes such as HLA-DR4, STAT4, TRAF1 and C5, PTPN22 enhances chronic inflammation and rheumatoid arthritis. Other than genetics, environmental factors, age (40 to 60), sex (common in women), overweight, smoking, and diet (eating a lot of red meat and consuming less vitamin C) are major reasons for this disease. The main symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis are joint pain, joint swelling, warmth, redness, stiffness, tiredness, lack of energy, weight loss, fever, sweating, dry eye, and chest pain.
Figure 01: Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis can be diagnosed through blood tests (erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, rheumatoid factor, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (anti-CCP)) and imaging scans (X-ray, MRI). Furthermore, treatment options may include medications (NSAIDs, steroids, conventional DMARDs, targeted synthetic DMARDs, biologic agents such as abatacept, adalimumab, anakinra, rituximab, sarilumab, tocilizumab), physical occupational therapy, and surgeries such as synovectomy, tendon repair, joint fusion, and total joint replacement.
What are the Similarities Between Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis?
- Juvenile idiopathic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are two types of arthritis diseases.
- They are autoimmune diseases.
- Both medical conditions have chronic inflammation.
- They may have similar symptoms such as joint pain, joint swelling, fever, eye problems.
- They can be diagnosed through similar methods.
- Both are treatable conditions through medications and surgeries.
What is the Difference Between Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis?
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis is commonly seen in kids and teens, while rheumatoid arthritis is commonly seen in middle age people. Thus, this is the key difference between juvenile idiopathic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Furthermore, juvenile idiopathic arthritis affects bone development and overall growth, while rheumatoid arthritis does not affect bone development and overall growth.
The below infographic presents the differences between juvenile idiopathic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis in tabular form for side by side comparison.
Summary – Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis vs Rheumatoid Arthritis
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are two types of arthritis diseases. They are autoimmune medical conditions. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis is commonly seen in kids and teens, while rheumatoid arthritis is commonly seen in middle age people. So, this summarizes the difference between juvenile idiopathic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Reference:
1. “Rheumatoid Arthritis.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research.
2. “Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Rheumatoid arthritis — Smart-Servier (cropped)” By Laboratoires Servier – Smart Servier website (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia