German evidence and consensus based guidelines 2010 for the treatment of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA)

Methods We performed a systematic literature analysis in PubMed (deadline: 15 January 2010, terms “juvenile idiopathic (rheumatoid) arthritis”, “therapy”, limits: “humans”, “published in the last 3 years”, “all child 018 years”, “clinical trial”) and evaluated relevant studies for quality of methodology. A formal consensus process, i.e. Nominal group technique and Delphi method, was conducted at three moderated consensus conferences at Dusseldorf or Krefeld (Germany) on May 9, 2007, August 1, 2007 and January 15, 2010. Conferences were attended by 95% of the representatives who had been nominated by their scientific society or organizations.