Abstract: Objective To investigate the early clinical characteristics, diagnosis and treatments of enthesitis related arthritis (ERA), and to improve the prognosis through early diagnosis. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on 148 ERA patients who were hospitalized in Beijing Children's Hospital during the period from Jan. 1st 2006 to Dec. 31st 2010. The clinical and laboratory data of the patients were collected for analysis of characteristics.Chi-square test and t test were used for comparisons of variables. Results In this study a total of 148 cases were included, and 124 cases were boys, 24 were girls. All patients had peripheral arthritis with or without tendon enthesitis as first manifestation. Early ERA patients usually had nonspecific symptoms. Parameters of inflammation had mild to moderate increase, and the positive rate of HLA-B27 was 12.76%. Uveitis occurred in 2.03% children. Conclusion (1) ERA usually occurs in older children, the incidence among male is higher than that among female; (2) The serious radiological changes of ERA are consistent with the patients age of onset; (3) The trunk axial joint is less frequently involved than werethe adults; (4) Laboratory examination: HLA-B27 negative ERA is more common in children, Laboratory markers of Inflammation had a mild to moderate increase; (5) Complications: uveitis occur less frequently than adults.

Key words: juvenile enthesitis, enthesitis related arthritis, clinical characteristic