Objective: Objective assessment the effectiveness of treatment with etanercept in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the aim of this study.
Material and methods: The study was conducted on 33 children before and after switching to etanercept treatment in periods: after 6 months (33 children), after 1 year (24 children), after 1.5 years (18 children) and after 2 years (13 children). Index Disease Activity Score DAS28, a method of diagnostic survey and a systematic analysis of medical records of patients who were enrolled in the biological treatment program were used to examine.
Results: The analysis showed that prior to treatment the children suffering from JIA revealed a significantly higher average level of disease activity (X = 5.82 &#177;0.77) than in the 6 month period of treatment (X = 2.65 &#177;1.03) (t = 22.48, p < 0.001). In addition, it has been demonstrated that disease activity of children with JIA after six months of biological treatment (X = 3.33 ±0.77), was significantly lower than after 1 year treatment (X = 3.74 ±0.67) (t = 2.50, p < 0.05). While the difference of the average level of change in disease activity after one and a half years biological treatment (X = 3.86 ±0.80) was significantly higher than after six months of treatment (M = 3.46 ±0.81) (t = 2.28, p < 0.05). The differences between the average level of disease activity after six months of treatment (X = 3.67 ±0.81) and after two years of treatment (X = 3.98 ±0.64) (t = 1.61, p > 0.05) were insignificant.
Conclusions: Biological treatment of children with JIA causes a significant change in disease activity in the objective assessment, bringing beneficial therapeutic effects.