Focus on idiopathic arthritis according to the 2001 revised Edmonton classification from the International League of Associations for Rheumatology: an Italian experience

OBJECTIVE: To classify a cohort of Italian patients categorized as affected with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) according to the revised 2001 Edmonton International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR) criteria. METHODS: Eighty-five patients with JIA firstly framed depending on traditional criteria during the last ten years were reallocated according to the JIA revised criteria proposed in 2001 by ILAR in Edmonton. RESULTS: The revision consented to define the following distribution of patients: 28.2% systemic, 55.3% oligoarticular and 11.8% polyarticular forms; only one child was defined as having psoriatic arthritis, one child with enthesitis-associated arthritis and two with the undifferentiated form of JIA. DISCUSSION: The 97.6% of the recruited patients were strictly classified according to the Edmonton ILAR criteria, demonstrating a very low number of patients whose arthritis could not be assigned to any JIA category due to unfulfillment of the required criteria.