What is the difference between rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory arthritis

Q: What tests are used to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis?

These include:Physical assessment. A physical assessment can help determine how much your symptoms are impacting your daily life. ...Joint scan. A joint scan looks for inflammation and damage in your joints. ...Imaging tests. X-rays and MRIs create detailed pictures of your bones, muscles, and joints that can help diagnose rheumatoid arthritis.

Overview

Rheumatoid arthritis 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.

Table of Contents Show

When to see a doctor
From Mayo Clinic to your inbox
Risk factors
Complications
What tests are used to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis?
Is osteoarthritis worse than rheumatoid?
Is rheumatic athritis a dangerous kind of arthritis?
What exactly is inflamatory arthritis?
Is rheumatoid arthritis same as inflammatory arthritis?
What is the best treatment for inflammatory arthritis?
What can trigger inflammatory arthritis?
Is inflammatory arthritis an autoimmune disease?

An autoimmune disorder, rheumatoid arthritis occurs when your immune system mistakenly attacks your own body's tissues.

Unlike the wear-and-tear damage of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis affects the lining of your joints, causing a painful swelling that can eventually result in bone erosion and joint deformity.

The inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis is what can damage other parts of the body as well. While new types of medications have improved treatment options dramatically, severe rheumatoid arthritis can still cause physical disabilities.

Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis may include:

Tender, warm, swollen joints
Joint stiffness that is usually worse in the mornings and after inactivity
Fatigue, fever and loss of appetite

Early rheumatoid arthritis tends to affect your smaller joints first — particularly the joints that attach your fingers to your hands and your toes to your feet.

As the disease progresses, symptoms often spread to the wrists, knees, ankles, elbows, hips and shoulders. In most cases, symptoms occur in the same joints on both sides of your body.

About 40% of people who have rheumatoid arthritis also experience signs and symptoms that don't involve the joints. Areas that may be affected include:

Skin
Eyes
Lungs
Heart
Kidneys
Salivary glands
Nerve tissue
Bone marrow
Blood vessels

Rheumatoid arthritis signs and symptoms may vary in severity and may even come and go. Periods of increased disease activity, called flares, alternate with periods of relative remission — when the swelling and pain fade or disappear. Over time, rheumatoid arthritis can cause joints to deform and shift out of place.

When to see a doctor

Make an appointment with your doctor if you have persistent discomfort and swelling in your joints.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

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Causes

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease. Normally, your immune system helps protect your body from infection and disease. In rheumatoid arthritis, your immune system attacks healthy tissue in your joints. It can also cause medical problems with your heart, lungs, nerves, eyes and skin.

Doctors don't know what starts this process, although a genetic component appears likely. While your genes don't actually cause rheumatoid arthritis, they can make you more likely to react to environmental factors — such as infection with certain viruses and bacteria — that may trigger the disease.

Risk factors

Factors that may increase your risk of rheumatoid arthritis include:

Your sex. Women are more likely than men to develop rheumatoid arthritis.
Age. Rheumatoid arthritis can occur at any age, but it most commonly begins in middle age.
Family history. If a member of your family has rheumatoid arthritis, you may have an increased risk of the disease.
Smoking. Cigarette smoking increases your risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, particularly if you have a genetic predisposition for developing the disease. Smoking also appears to be associated with greater disease severity.
Excess weight. People who are overweight appear to be at a somewhat higher risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis.

Complications

Rheumatoid arthritis increases your risk of developing:

Osteoporosis. Rheumatoid arthritis itself, along with some medications used for treating rheumatoid arthritis, can increase your risk of osteoporosis — a condition that weakens your bones and makes them more prone to fracture.
Rheumatoid nodules. These firm bumps of tissue most commonly form around pressure points, such as the elbows. However, these nodules can form anywhere in the body, including the heart and lungs.
Dry eyes and mouth. People who have rheumatoid arthritis are much more likely to develop Sjogren's syndrome, a disorder that decreases the amount of moisture in the eyes and mouth.
Infections. Rheumatoid arthritis itself and many of the medications used to combat it can impair the immune system, leading to increased infections. Protect yourself with vaccinations to prevent diseases such as influenza, pneumonia, shingles and COVID-19.
Abnormal body composition. The proportion of fat to lean mass is often higher in people who have rheumatoid arthritis, even in those who have a normal body mass index (BMI).
Carpal tunnel syndrome. If rheumatoid arthritis affects your wrists, the inflammation can compress the nerve that serves most of your hand and fingers.
Heart problems. Rheumatoid arthritis can increase your risk of hardened and blocked arteries, as well as inflammation of the sac that encloses your heart.
Lung disease. People with rheumatoid arthritis have an increased risk of inflammation and scarring of the lung tissues, which can lead to progressive shortness of breath.
Lymphoma. Rheumatoid arthritis increases the risk of lymphoma, a group of blood cancers that develop in the lymph system.

What tests are used to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis?

These include:

Physical assessment. A physical assessment can help determine how much your symptoms are impacting your daily life. ...
Joint scan. A joint scan looks for inflammation and damage in your joints. ...
Imaging tests. X-rays and MRIs create detailed pictures of your bones, muscles, and joints that can help diagnose rheumatoid arthritis.

Is osteoarthritis worse than rheumatoid?

Rheumatoid arthritis is much worse than osteoarthritis. RA affects multiple joints if it affects the joints of the rib cage it even causes difficulty in breathing. Moreover, I have seen a significant difference in OA people’s life after replacement surgeries which is not possible in RA. Keep Reading: 6 Best Exercises for Arthritis knee Pain Relief

Is rheumatic athritis a dangerous kind of arthritis?

Rheumatoid arthritis can increase your risk of hardened and blocked arteries, as well as inflammation of the sac that encloses your heart. Lung disease. People with rheumatoid arthritis have an increased risk of inflammation and scarring of the lung tissues, which can lead to progressive shortness of breath.

What exactly is inflamatory arthritis?

Inflammation is when part of the body becomes reddened, swollen, hot, and painful. So it seems simple enough: the word arthritis means joint inflammation. Unfortunately, it is a bit more complicated than that. In reality, the word arthritis is used to refer to more than 100 different diseases and conditions that destroy joints, bones, muscles ...

Is rheumatoid arthritis same as inflammatory arthritis?

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis. It tends to involve more than one of the small joints of the hands and feet. In particular, the lining of the joint or tendons (the synovium) is inflamed, causing warmth, pain, and stiffness.

What is the best treatment for inflammatory arthritis?

Methotrexate is usually the first medicine given for rheumatoid arthritis, often with another DMARD and a short course of steroids (corticosteroids) to relieve any pain. These may be combined with biological treatments..

methotrexate..

leflunomide..

hydroxychloroquine..

sulfasalazine..

What can trigger inflammatory arthritis?

The most common triggers of an OA flare are overdoing an activity or trauma to the joint. Other triggers can include bone spurs, stress, repetitive motions, cold weather, a change in barometric pressure, an infection or weight gain. Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is an inflammatory disease that affects the skin and joints.

Is inflammatory arthritis an autoimmune disease?

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.