Rheumatoid arthritis overview
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is traditionally considered a chronic, inflammatoryautoimmune disorder that causes the immune system to attack the joints. It is a disabling and painful inflammatory condition, which can lead to substantial loss of mobility due to pain and joint destruction. RA is a systemic disease, often affecting extra-articular tissues throughout the body including the skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs, and muscles.
The name is derived from the Greek word rheumatos which means "flowing", and this initially gave rise to the term 'rheumatic fever', an illness that can follow throat infections and which includes joint pain. The suffix -oid means "resembling", i.e. resembling rheumatic fever. Arthr means "joint" and the suffix -itis, a "condition involving inflammation". Thus, rheumatoid arthritis was a form of joint inflammation that resembled rheumatic fever. Rheumatoid arthritis appears to have been described in paintings more than a century before the first detailed medical description of the condition in 1800 by Landre-Beauvais.[1]
Historical Perspective
Classification
Pathophysiology
Causes
Differentiating Rheumatoid Arthritis from other Diseases
Epidemiology and Demographics
Risk Factors
Natural History, Complications and Prognosis
Diagnosis
History and Symptoms
Physical Examination
X Ray
CT
Treatment
Medical Therapy
Prevention
===Future or Investigational Therapies