Cristina Romaniello, DO, & Caitlin Kesari, MD | Issue: February 2023 |
A review of diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis
Although most systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients don’t develop macrophage activation syndrome (MAS), the approximately 10% who do have this serious complication can experience widespread, massive inflammation, debilitating symptoms and even death. To improve understanding of MAS among physicians and advance efforts to develop effective therapies to treat it, a panel of 28 international pediatric…
The pathogenesis of and new classification criteria for MAS
A 26-year-old woman presented to our emergency department (ED) with intermittent fevers, nausea and vomiting. She had a past medical history of well-controlled, anti-nuclear antibody positive and rheumatoid factor negative polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (pJIA) and Crohn’s disease. Her maintenance treatment consisted of monthly intravenous infliximab, 10 mg of oral methotrexate weekly and 20 mg…