To estimate the prevalence of abnormal spirometry in Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) patients and to evaluate its relation with subtype, gender, disease activity and methotrexate therapy.
A cross-sectional study was carried out involving 5-12 years old JIA patients. Forced vital capacity (FVC), Forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), FEV1/FVC ratio, Forced expiratory flow between 25-75% of vital capacity (FEF25-75%) and peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) were measured.
Out of 33 patients, 18 were male. Six patients had oligoarthritis, 16 had polyarthritis and 11 had systemic JIA. Seventeen patients had clinically inactive disease and 16 received methotrexate. None had respiratory symptoms. Thirteen patients had decreased FVC with normal FEV1/FVC. One had decreased FEV1 and FEV1/FVC with normal FVC. Decreased FEF25-75% was found in 4 and decreased PEFR in 8 patients. JIA subtypes differed significantly with regard to prevalence of decreased FVC and FEV1.
Abnormal spirometry was present in 13 patients and affected all subsets in terms of subtypes, gender, disease activity and methotrexate therapy.