SUMMARY
Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) is a chronic arthritic disease eventually associated with anterior chronic uveitis, usually assimptomatic but potentially debilitating. In a follow-up study of 77 children with JRA attended in the Department of Rheumatology of Escola Paulista de Medicina, São Paulo, uveitis was associated with JRA in 10,4% of the cases; and considering only the pauciarticular onset JRA, the association was 62,5%. Rheumatoid factor was negative in 87,5% of the cases of uveitis associated with JRA and antinuclear antibodies were present in great number of patients with normal ocular examination (5,8%). The ocular manifestations were in 100% of the cases a chronic anterior non granulomatous uveitis with or without its complications (present in 62,5% of the patients with ocular involvement). The importance of the ophthalmological examination on routine is demonstrated, in order to introduce treatment earlier and diminish the occurrence of secondary complications