Rheumatology Advance Access originally published online on November 21, 2008
Rheumatology 2009 48(2):96-97; doi:10.1093/rheumatology/ken418
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
EDITORIALS |
Juvenile-onset systemic sclerosis: children are not small adults
1Centre for Rheumatology, Royal Free Hospital, London, UK
Correspondence to: C. P. Denton, Centre for Rheumatology, Royal Free Hospital, Pond Street, Hampstead, London NW3 2QG, UK. E-mail: c.denton@medsch.ucl.ac.uk
| The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below. |
The majority of childhood-onset rheumatic diseases differ markedly in presentation and management from their equivalent adult conditions, and juvenile-onset systemic sclerosis (JSSc) is no exception. Chronic ill health from any cause in childhood impacts heavily, not only on physical growth and development, but also in terms of social, educational and psychological development. Even localized scleroderma, the most common spectrum in children, which is not associated with the internal organ complications that account for the majority of mortality and morbidity in both juvenile and adult systemic disease, has profound effects on limb growth and development that cause major morbidity compared with the adult disease.
SSc is the most serious