This core set has been approved by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Board of Directors asProvisional. This signifies that the core set has been quantitatively validated using patient data, but it has not undergone validation based on an external data set. All ACR-approved core sets are expected to undergo intermittent updates.Objective. To validate a core set of outcome measures for the evaluation of response to treatment in patients with juvenile dermatomyositis (DM). Methods. In 2001, a preliminary consensus-derived core set for evaluating response to therapy in juvenile DM was established. In the present study, the core set was validated through an evidence-based, large-scale data collection that led to the enrollment of 294 patients from 36 countries. Consecutive patients with active disease were assessed at baseline and after 6 months. The validation procedures included assessment of feasibility, responsiveness, discriminant and construct ability, concordance in the evaluation of response to therapy between physicians and parents, redundancy, internal consistency, and ability to predict a therapeutic response. Results. The following clinical measures were found to be feasible, and to have good construct validity, discriminative ability, and internal consistency; furthermore, they were not redundant, proved responsive to clinically important changes in disease activity, and were associated strongly with treatment outcome and thus were included in the final core set: 1) physician's global assessment of disease activity, 2) muscle strength, 3) global disease activity measure, 4) parent's global assessment of patient's well-being, 5) functional ability, and 6) health-related quality of life. Conclusion. The members of the Paediatric Rheumatology International Trials Organisation, with the endorsement of the American College of Rheumatology and the European League Against Rheumatism, propose a core set of criteria for the evaluation of response to therapy that is scientifically and clinically relevant and statistically validated. The core set will help standardize the conduct and reporting of clinical trials and assist practitioners in deciding whether a child with juvenile DM has responded adequately to therapy.

BackgroundThe availability of methotrexate and the introduction of multiple biological agents have revolutionized the treatment of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). Several international and national drug registries have been implemented to accurately monitor the long-term safety/efficacy of these agents. This report aims to present the combined data coming from Pharmachild/PRINTO registry and the national registries from Germany (BiKeR) and Sweden.MethodsDescriptive statistics was used for demographic, clinical data, drug exposure, adverse events (AEs) and events of special interest (ESIs). For the Swedish register, AE data were not available.ResultsData from a total of 15,284 patients were reported: 8274 (54%) from the Pharmachild registry and 3990 (26%) and 3020 (20%) from the German and the Swedish registries, respectively. Pharmachild children showed a younger age (median of 5.4 versus 7.6 years) at JIA onset and shorter disease duration at last available visit (5.3 versus 6.1–6.8) when compared with the other registries. The most frequent JIA category was the rheumatoid factor–negative polyarthritis (range of 24.6–29.9%). Methotrexate (61–84%) and etanercept (24%–61.8%) were the most frequently used synthetic and biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), respectively. There was a wide variability in glucocorticoid use (16.7–42.1%). Serious AEs were present in 572 (6.9%) patients in Pharmachild versus 297 (7.4%) in BiKeR. Infection and infestations were the most frequent AEs (29.4–30.1%) followed by gastrointestinal disorders (11.5–19.6%). The most frequent ESIs were infections (75.3–89%).ConclusionsThis article is the first attempt to present a very large sample of data on JIA patients from different national and international registries and represents the first proposal for data merging as the most powerful tool for future analysis of safety and effectiveness of immunosuppressive therapies in JIA.Registry registrationThe Pharmachild registry is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01399281) and at the European Network of Centres for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance (ENCePP) (http://www.encepp.eu/encepp/viewResource.htm?id=19362). The BiKeR registry is registered at ENCePP (http://www.encepp.eu/encepp/viewResource.htm?id=20591).Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13075-018-1780-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Purpose: We aimed to test the hypothesis that medulloblastoma (MB) variants show a different age distribution and clinical behavior reflecting their specific biology, and that MB occurring at very young age is associated with cancer predisposition syndromes such as Gorlin syndrome (GS). Experimental Design: We investigated the frequency, age distribution, location, response to treatment, outcome, and association with familial cancer predisposition syndromes in a series of 82 cases of MB in patients ages <14 years diagnosed at the Giannina Gaslini Children's Hospital, Genoa, between 1987 and. Results: Desmoplastic MB and MB with extensive nodularity (MBEN), were present in 22 of 82 cases (27%) and were more frequent in children ages V3 years (13 of 25; 52%). In this age group, MBEN was significantly more frequent than desmoplastic MB and classic MB (P < 0.001) and had a good prognosis. MBEN was associated with GS in 5 of 12 cases. Overall, 8 cases occurred in the context of familial tumor predisposition syndromes (5 GS, 1 each NF1, LiFraumeni, and Fragile X) and 7 of these patients were ages V3 years at diagnosis. Desmoplastic histology and a more intensive treatment represented independent favorable prognostic factors in multivariate analysis (P = 0.003 and P = 0.0139, respectively). Metastasis was a predictor of bad outcome (P = 0.0001). Conclusions: Our data indicate that biologically different MB entities warrant risk-adapted treatment and that MBEN is strongly associated with GS. Patients, ages V3 years, with MB and their families should be investigated for tumor predisposition syndromes such as GS. Medulloblastoma (MB) with extensive nodularity (MBEN)occurring in young children is a rare but well-defined entity (1 -3). It is believed to be related to, but distinct from, desmoplastic MB (DMB). However, many aspects of this peculiar entity are still unclear, including its frequency, why it occurs at a very young age, why its prognosis is good, and its association with Gorlin syndrome (GS) or nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome. Most of the largest cooperative trials that have been published on MB in infants do not report on the relative frequency of this distinct entity compared with other variants and/or comment on the effect of the diagnosis of this variant on subsequent follow-up and treatment strategies (4 -6). A large prospective study by Eberhart reported that 73 of 330 (22%) cases had various degrees of desmoplasia and 14 of 330 cases were MBEN (4.2%; ref. 7). A more recent, extensive neuropathogical review focused on the morphologic features and biological behavior of 2 large contemporaneous cohorts of patients with MB and showed that DMB represents 5% of all MB and up to 57% of cases in children ages <3 years (3). A recent prospective, cooperative trial reported that desmoplastic histologic variants have a clearly favorable effect on prognosis in infants with MB who are treated with chemotherapy (CT) as first-line therapy. However, it did not mention the frequency of Imaging, Diagnosis, Pro...