Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disorder that can affect more than just your joints. In some people, the condition can damage a wide variety of body systems, including the skin, eyes, lungs, heart, and blood vessels. An autoimmune disorder, rheumatoid arthritis occurs when your immune system mistakenly attacks your own body’s tissues.
As RA progresses, the body changes. Some changes you can see and feel, while others you cannot. Each stage of RA comes with different treatment goals.
Stage 1 is early-stage RA. Many people…
Rheumatoid arthritis or RA is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease, which means that your immune system attacks healthy cells in your body by mistake, causing inflammation (painful swelling) in the affected parts of the body. RA mainly attacks the joints, usually many joints at once. RA commonly affects joints in the hands, wrists, and knees.
Rheumatoid arthritis and gout are both painful types of arthritis. Gout symptoms include intense pain, redness, stiffness, swelling, and warmth in your big toe or other joints. In gout, uric acid crystals cause inflammation. In rheumatoid arthritis, it’s your immune system that causes joint damage.
In most cases of rheumatoid arthritis, the patient tests positive for rheumatoid factor (RF) and/or anti-citrullinated peptide (CPP) antibodies. These indicate that the patient is seropositive and that they possess the antibodies that cause an attack on joints and lead to inflammation.
The joints involved most frequently are the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) and metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joints of the hands, the wrists, and small joints of the feet, including the metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joints. The shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles are also affected in many patients.
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RheumatoidArthritis.org Overview
Overview: Osteoarthritis vs. rheumatoid arthritis. Enlarge image: Arthritis is the swelling and tenderness of one or more joints. The main symptoms of arthritis are joint pain and stiffness, which typically worsen with age. The most common types of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease that causes pain, swelling, stiffness, and loss of function in the joints. A healthy immune system protects the body by attacking foreign organisms such as bacteria and viruses. However, in cases where an autoimmune disease exists, the body mistakenly attacks healthy tissue instead.
