Other conditions with symptoms similar to juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

A number of conditions can cause painful, stiff joints in children. Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) is a relatively uncommon cause of these symptoms.¹ Most often, joint pain can be linked to an injury.

Other conditions that may be confused with JRA include:

• Growing pains.
• Injury or overuse (knee pain, bursitis, tendinitis).
• Other inflammatory diseases, including lupus, rheumatic fever, or other types of arthritis.
• Hypermobility syndrome ("double-jointed"), which can cause joint pain at night and after heavy or unusual activity. The child may show unusual ability to overextend or overstraighten the knees, fingers, hands, or elbows.
• Lyme disease.
• Inflammation in a joint caused by a foreign body, such as a splinter in the joint.
• A condition in which the upper end of the thighbone slips off the rest of the bone (slipped capital femoral epiphysis).
• A tumor.
• Infection of a joint (bacterial or septic arthritis).
• Infection of a bone (osteomyelitis).
• Arthritis associated with inflammatory bowel disease.
• Other diseases that affect cell growth, such as leukemia.

Citations

1. Warren RW, et al. (2005). Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis). In WJ Koopman, LW Moreland, eds., Arthritis and Allied Conditions, 15th ed., vol. 1, pp. 1277–1300. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.