TY - JOUR T1 - It is time to rethink juvenile idiopathic arthritis classification and nomenclature JF - Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases JO - Ann Rheum Dis SP - 1437 LP - 1439 DO - 10.1136/annrheumdis-2012-201388 VL - 71 IS - 9 AU - Alberto Martini Y1 - 2012/09/01 UR - http://ard.bmj.com/content/71/9/1437.abstract N2 - Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is not a disease, but an exclusion diagnosis that encompasses all forms of arthritis that begin before the age of 16 years, persist for more than 6 weeks, and are of unknown origin. This heterogeneous group of chronic arthritides has been classified on clinical and laboratory grounds to try to identify homogeneous, mutually exclusives categories suitable for etiopathogenic studies . Recent advances have shown that while some JIA categories identify quite definite disease entities, others still include heterogeneous conditions. Some aspects of JIA classification and nomenclature need therefore to be reconsidered. ER -