Helping the Smallest Patients Overcome Juvenile Arthritis

In arthritis, the immune system attacks the joints and the surrounding bones and soft tissues, causing redness, pain and swelling. Left untreated the joints may lose function and in rare cases become stiff and immobile. Pediatric arthritis is a challenging disease to diagnose, but fortunately new treatments greatly lessen the disease and are offering new hope for children.

One area that continues to be challenging is the decision around when and how to treat the disease.  Potent new medications are offering new hope but they have side effects and are very expensive. John MacKenzie, MD, and his team, in collaboration with pediatric rheumatologists, study this problem and have come up with several promising new ways to look at how treatments are working.

The pediatric radiology team helps to precisely deliver medicines directly into the joints by using imaging to target therapy.  This is an exciting application for precision-guided medicine which minimizes the need for systemic therapies and gets the medicine to exactly the area needed.

Learn more about radiological treatments for juvenile arthritis by clicking here.