Characteristics of rheumatoid arthritis (rheumatism for short): usually acute, with obvious redness, swelling, heat and pain in the joints. Vagrancy pain appears quickly and disappears quickly. Arthritis mainly occurs in big joints and small joints such as knees, ankles, shoulders and buttocks, which is relatively rare and unrepresentative. Joint swelling is mainly due to hyperemia, edema and increased exudate in the joint, without morning stiffness, muscle atrophy and joint complications, while rheumatoid arthritis is mostly slow, with typical morning stiffness. Joint swelling is generally not red or swollen, and the wandering time is more than one month. Mainly manifested in small joints, joint swelling is mainly edema of tissues around joints and thickening of synovium and joint capsule, accompanied by muscle atrophy, bursitis and tenosynovitis around joints. Rheumatic joint swelling lasts for a short time, and generally subsides naturally within 1 ~ 6 weeks. Even rheumatic fever, arthritis and pathological activities with heart damage usually stop within 6 months (mostly within 3 months). There is no sequela after cure, which is different from rheumatoid disease.
Rheumatism symptom
1, Pain: Joint pain is the most common symptom of rheumatism. Pain may occur in all joints of the whole body, but pain in limbs and trunk may cause diseases of internal organs and nervous system.
2, muscle pain symptoms, muscle weakness, increased muscle enzymes, myogenic damage, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, mixed connective tissue disease, dermatomyositis, etc.
3. Irregular fever: Before rheumatism appears, there will be irregular fever and no chills. If antibiotic treatment fails, there will be rapid ESR, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, acute neutrophilic febrile dermatosis, adult Stier's disease, panniculitis and so on. A fever may be the first symptom.
4, skin and mucous membrane symptoms: dermatomyositis, Sjogren's syndrome, Behcet's disease, panniculitis, etc. Rash, oral ulcer, skin ulcer, reticular cyanosis, eye symptoms and so on will appear.
5. Raynaud's sign: Fingertips will turn white, then purple and finally red when they are cold or emotional changes, accompanied by numbness, pain and severe skin ulcers, which can be seen in rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and mixed connective tissue disease.
6. Abnormal blood indexes of autoantibodies: anti-ENA antibody, anti-ds-DNA antibody, anti-platelet antibody, antinuclear antibody, anticardiolipin antibody and rheumatoid factor.