Lenka Vojarová1,2, Eva Hyrdelová1,2, Miriam Čiljaková1, Karolína Martinásková3, Peter Bánovčin1
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a clinical diagnosis, that means the diagnosis per exclusionem, requiring to exclude other specific causes of arthritides. JIA in essence encompasses all the types of idiopathic arthritides in children, that begin before the age of 16 years, if persist for more than six weeks. This heterogeneous group of chronic arthritides in children is than subdivided into the different subtypes, in an attempt to identify the relatively homogeneous and exclusive subcategories. Recent studies have shown, that while some subcategories of JIA identify quite definite and truly specific disease entities of childhood, other subtypes still remain to be significantly heterogeneous.