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Systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) associated with lung disease (JIA‐LD) is a potentially life threating complication in children with systemic JIA. Although high‐resolution computed tomography (HRCT) is considered the gold standard imaging modality for evaluating interstitial lung disease (ILD), lung ultrasound (US) has shown utility for ILD screening in adults with connective tissue diseases at lower cost and without using ionizing radiation. The goals of this pilot study were to describe lung US features in children with known systemic JIA‐LD and to assess the feasibility of lung US in this population. Children age <18 years with systemic JIA‐LD and healthy controls were enrolled. Lung US acquisition was performed at 14 lung positions. Demographic, clinical, and HRCT data were collected and reviewed. Feasibility was assessed through patient surveys. Lung US findings were qualitatively and semiquantitatively assessed and compared to HRCT findings. Lung US was performed in 9 children with systemic JIA‐LD and 6 healthy controls and took 12 minutes on average to perform. Lung US findings in systemic JIA‐LD included focal to diffuse pleural irregularity, granularity, and thickening, with associated scattered or coalesced B‐lines, and subpleural consolidations. Lung US findings appeared to correspond to HRCT findings. Lung US in systemic JIA‐LD reveals highly conspicuous abnormalities in the pleura and subpleura that appear to correlate with peripheral lung findings on HRCT. Lung US is a feasible imaging tool in children even from an early age. This study suggests a potential role of lung US in systemic JIA‐LD screening, diagnosis, and/or prognostication.

Abstract: We investigated whether the specific localization of DNA replicator sites at the nuclear membrane at the end of the S phase, found in dividing animal cells and in the plantHaplopappus gracilis, applied also to other plants. We found that nuclei labelled at the nuclear periphery were observed in plants where the chromocenters are localized at the nuclear membrane. In other plants, where the chromocenters are scattered throughout the nucleus, a different pattern of labelling is observed where the silver grains are restricted to a number of distinct sites, distributed in a fashion similar to that of the chromocenters. We believe that these nuclei were replicating the chromocentric heterochromatin and so were therefore at the end of the S phase. The specific patterns of the distribution of DNA replicator sites at the end of the S phase make it possible to distinguish nuclei which are in the late S phase and thus define a specific stage of the S phase, during which only heterochromatin replication occurs.