Condition: Adult Onset Still’s Disease

Adult onset Still’s disease (AOSD) is a rare inflammatory disorder that affects the entire body (systemic disease). The cause of the disorder is unknown (idiopathic). Affected individuals may develop episodes of high, spiking fevers, a pink or salmon colored rash, joint pain, muscle pain, a sore throat and other symptoms associated with systemic inflammatory disease. The specific symptoms and frequency of episodes vary from one person to another and the progression of the disorder is difficult to predict. In some individuals, the disorder appears suddenly, disappears almost as quickly and may not return. In other people, adult onset Still’s disease is a chronic, potentially disabling, condition. Various medications are used to treat individuals with adult onset Still’s disease, affected individuals may respond to therapy differently. Adult onset Still’s disease does not appear to run in families.

Adult onset Still’s disease is the adult form of systemic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (juvenile Still’s disease). The disorders are name after a British physician who first described systemic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in the medical literature in 1896. The term “adult Still’s disease” was first used in the medial literature in 1971, but cases that fit the description of the disorder appear in the medical literature as early as the late 1800s.