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Objectives: Across diagnosis groups, successful transition of adolescent and young adults from children's hospitals to adult care is often associated with decreased treatment adherence and treatment results. The aim of this study was to characterize disease activity and anti-rheumatic medications following transfer of care of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) patients to the adult clinic.Method: All consecutive JIA patients aged 16-20 years who visited the specific transition clinic in the rheumatology outpatient clinic of Helsinki University Hospital between November 2012 and May 2013 and between April 2015 and April 2016 were evaluated.Results: A total of 214 patients were identified, and 23 appeared in both cohorts. Females had higher disease activity scores (DAS) than males (DAS28-CRP 1.90.7 versus 1.6 +/- 0.3, p=.019; and DAS44-CRP 1.0 +/- 0.7 versus 0.7 +/- 0.5, p=.005; respectively) in the latter cohort. Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) were prescribed to 86% of patients, and 48% were on biological DMARDs (bDMARDs), whereas 14% had no specific treatments.Conclusion: Disease activity and clinic attendance remained stable during the transition period. The proportion of transition phase JIA patients on bDMARDs was high and disease activity was low. Reasons for lower disease activity in males in the latter cohort require further investigation.

Objective. To assess the specificity and sensitivity of autoantibodies binding to citrullinated carboxyterminal telopeptides of types I and II collagens in an early arthritis series. Methods. A cohort of 146 patients from the Kuopio 2000 Arthritis Survey having RA, AS, PsA, ReA, uSpA or undifferentiated arthritis were studied. Autoantibodies binding citrullinated types I and II carboxytelopeptides were measured in two different inhibition ELISA assays. Sera from 135 adult persons were used as controls. Results. In RA, the sensitivities were 0.83 with long type I telopeptide and 0.78 with long type II telopeptide and the respective specificities were 0.94 and 0.93, while the corresponding values in other inflammatory joint diseases were much lower. The likelihood ratio in RA increased with longer peptides from 4.20 to 14.06 for type I telopeptide and from 2.74 to 11.67 for type II telopeptide. Conclusion. The antibody assay using long telopeptide from type I collagen was the most specific and sensitive method in every diagnostic category, although in the arthritides other than RA, binding was much less abundant and possibly citrulline-independent.