Thalidomide for severe systemic onset juvenile rheumatoid arthritis: A multicenter study

Thirteen children with difficult systemic onset juvenile rheumatoid arthritis were treated with thalidomide. At 6 months, 11 of the 13 were able to reduce their use of prednisone (P <.002), with a concurrent improvement in erythrocyte sedimentation rate (P <.0001) and an increase in hemoglobin level (P < 0.005). Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis improvement scores greater than or equal to50% were obtained by 10 of the 13 children.