Rheumatoid Arthritis Diagnosis and Treatment

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common forms of arthritis. It is caused by degeneration of joints and surrounding structures. Most forms of osteoarthritis are due to degeneration of the cartilage in between the joints. This leads to chronic joint pain, without any major signs of inflammation.

The most common joints involved with osteoarthritis include knees, hips, low back, and neck joints. Most forms of osteoarthritis occur later in our life. With adequate symptomatic treatment, you can achieve a good quality of life.

Lupus is a chronic auto-immune condition, affecting multiple organs in the body. The disease causes the immune system to attack several organs, the most common being the joints, and skin.

It could also affect other internal organs, such as the kidneys, causing inflammation, which is called lupus nephritis. With treatment, lupus-related symptoms are manageable, so you can improve your quality of life.

Gout is a form of inflammatory arthritis that causes significant pain, swelling, and limited mobility of affected joints. It is a very painful condition.

Symptoms of gout come and go in a process called gout flares. A gout flare typically occurs suddenly, causing significant pain and swelling. Typically, a gout flare usually lasts for up to two weeks.

Untreated gout leads to recurrent similar flares. Hence, it needs long term treatment to lower the uric acid level which decreases the risk of future flares.

Psoriatic arthritis is a form of chronic inflammatory arthritis. It is present in some patients who have skin psoriasis, or a family history of skin psoriasis.

Psoriatic arthritis affects multiple joints and surrounding structures, particularly the tendons causing recurrent tendinitis. Some forms of psoriatic arthritis also led to chronic low back pain.

Psoriatic arthritis also requires long-term treatment with immunosuppressive medications.

Vasculitis is a group of complex autoimmune conditions, due to inflammation in the blood vessels. There are multiple different sub-groups within vasculitis. These sub-groups are divided based on the size of the blood vessels involved.

Vasculitis affects multiple organs and presents with a multitude of symptoms depending on the organs involved.

Scleroderma is an autoimmune connective tissue and rheumatic disease that causes inflammation in the skin and other areas of the body.

When an immune response tricks tissues into thinking they are injured, it causes inflammation, and the body makes too much collagen, leading to scleroderma. Too much collagen in your skin and other tissues causes patches of tight, hard skin. Scleroderma involves many systems in your body.

Inflammatory myopathies are a group of diseases, with no known cause, that involves chronic muscle inflammation accompanied by muscle weakness.

Most of these disorders are autoimmune disorders, in which the body’s immune response system—which normally defends against infection and disease—attacks its own muscle fibers, blood vessels, connective tissue, organs, or joints. These rare disorders may affect both adults and children.

The chronic inflammatory myopathies can’t be cured in most adults, but many of the symptoms can be treated. Options include medication, physical therapy, and rest.

Spondylarthritis is  a group of conditions, which leads to chronic low back pain and inflammatory arthritis. The chronic low back pain starts before the age of 45 years.

There are multiple conditions within spondylarthritis, such as ankylosing spondylitis, inflammatory bowel disease associated spondylarthritis, psoriatic arthritis, inflammatory eye disease associated arthritis, add an undifferentiated form of spondylarthritis.

All these conditions usually affect low back joint called sacroiliac joint, causing chronic low back pain and stiffness. This is a condition that typically affects younger age group patients below the age of 45 years.

Sjogren’s syndrome is an auto-immune disease affecting various glands in our body. The most commonly affected glands include the salivary glands in the mouth and the lacrimal glands in the eyes.

The immune system attacks the affected glands, leading to decreased secretion of saliva causing severe dry mouth and severe dry eyes.

In rare cases, Sjogren’s could cause inflammatory arthritis and could also affect internal organs such as the lungs. A rheumatology consultation can help you address the symptoms of Sjogren’s and restore your quality of life.