Rheumatoid Arthritis is an incurable disease that causes inflammation of the joints, which severely restricts a person’s movements. It must be diagnosed at an early stage for the patient to be given treatment that can help them to bear the disease. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic condition, meaning that once a person had it, it is going to affect the patient for the rest of his life.
Causes of rheumatoid arthritis
There are different kinds of arthritis, and hreumatoid arthritis is one of them. It is different from other kinds of arthritis in many ways. Firstly, rheumatoid arthritis is a symmetrical disease, meaning that for example if one knee is affected by it, then the other is also affected. Rheumatoid arthritis is basically a condition where the immune system of the body turns against itself. Scientists are still not sure what exactly causes this disease. Some people might have the genes that cause it, but never get the disease. Women get rheumatoid arthritis more often than men, and they are likely to get it soon after a pregnancy. For rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis, it is important that the patient should have enough information about what can cause the disease. Causes of the disease include complications caused by treatments for other conditions, and therefore doctors must also have access to patients’ records in order to identify the causes correctly.
Symptoms of the disease
Symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis include stiffness and pain in the joints, caused by swelling of the joints. The pain usually gets worse after a person has been sleeping or resting. The disease is a systemic one, and apart from joint pains, it can also cause fever and anemia, in which the red blood cell count goes low. Nodules which are about the size of small peas are also symptoms of this disease. They are not painful and can occur in any part of the body, usually near the joints at the elbows and ankles, and behind the head.
Although rheumatoid arthritis is usually found in adults between 25 to 50 years of age, there is also a juvenile form of it that children below sixteen years of age are known to suffer from. Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis lasts for about six weeks or more, and is characterized by inflammation and pain in the joints.
Identifying the disease
Rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis can usually be done with the help of tests. The Latex test is one of the most common tests. This is done at the early stages of the disease, and can help to confirm the presence of the disease early enough. During the progression of the disease, an antibody known as the rheumatoid factor is found in the blood. The Latex test identifies the disease by checking if the person tests positive or negative regarding this antibody. Although the rheumatoid factor may not be seen in all early stages of the disease, it is produced as the disease progresses.
Another common test that is used in rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis is the sedimentation rate test. In this test, blood is taken from the person’s body, and the rate at which sedimentation happens in the drawn blood is recorded. If the rate is high, this indicates that the person has rheumatoid arthritis. The test may be repeated at regular intervals. If the sedimentation increases or decreases, this indicates that the patient’s rheumatic condition is accordingly worsening or improving respectively.
Osteoarthritis is also a condition that is similar to rheumatoid arthritis. Like rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis is also a common form of arthritis. While the former is a systemic disease, osteoarthritis is a localized one. Also, one major difference between rheumatism and osteoarthritis is that the former does not affect the joints at the hands that are closest to the fingernails, whereas the latter does.
What is it like to have the disease?
Only those who have the disease know what it is like living with it. It has been proved that having rumatoid arthritis increases your chances of having silent heart attacks, which are cardiac problems that often go unnoticed because there is usually no outward sign that the person is having a heart attack.
Patients of rheumatoid arthritis should avoid repetitive movements and carrying heavy loads. Some patients with chronic or acute symptoms may have to use a cane to help them walk. They may also need props like handles at the edge of the bathtub to help them in their movements.
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