[Significance of the genetics of haptoglobin types in the demarcation of subgroups of juvenile chronic arthritis].

According to the at present valid definition and due to its different clinical subgroups as well as to the different therapeutic influencibility and prognosis the juvenile chronic arthritis represents a very heterogeneous feature of a disease. Systems of genetic markers increasingly obtain importance for the exact clinical specification of the juvenile chronic arthritis. The investigations described in this paper show a significant correlation of the genetically determined haptoglobin variants to the subgroups of the juvenile chronic arthritis. By means of the careful nosological differentiation which goes beyond the usual principles of subdivision the type of haptoglobin gives a diagnostic enrichment in the assessment of the juvenile chronic arthritis.