Many patients who visit the rheumatology department ask the doctor, “Do you think I have rheumatism?” “Is rheumatism the same as rheumatoid?” In response to these confusions, the reporter visited the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology of Peking University First Hospital and asked the professional doctors to explain carefully: Reporter: Dr. Wang, is what the people call “rheumatism” the “rheumatism” referred to by your rheumatologists? Dr. Wang: No, the people say “rheumatism” is a Chinese medicine disease name, belongs to the paralysis, refers to the combination of wind and wet two kinds of disease caused by the disease, can be manifested as headache, fever, fear of wind, body sinking, joint pain, etc.. In Western medicine, rheumatic diseases refer to a large group of diseases that affect joints and their surrounding tissues, including more than 300 diseases recognized by modern medicine, such as rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, lupus erythematosus, dry syndrome, etc. The spectrum of diseases is different from that of Chinese medicine. Reporter: Through your explanation, I have understood the concept of rheumatic diseases. But we often hear that lesbians get cold during the month or do not pay attention to the cold or humidity when they are young and end up with back and leg pain, and the people call this “rheumatoid arthritis”. Dr. Wang: In fact, the phenomenon you just mentioned is called joint pain in modern Western medicine, not arthritis. The so-called “rheumatoid arthritis” is actually a normal physiological response to cold pain in the joints, which protects us from the cold, and is not a disease diagnosis, and does not necessarily mean that you have a disease. This kind of joint pain, as the people call it, is common in the northern part of China, mostly due to cold, wind and environmental humidity, with pain in the lumbar and knee joints as the main manifestation, but also in the joints of the shoulders, hands and feet. Generally speaking, the joints are not red and swollen, the surface is hot and “inflammatory”, there is no obvious abnormality on X-ray and other objective examinations, the bones are not damaged, and the shape and mobility of the joints are good. Usually, most of them can get better on their own after getting rid of the bad environment. Reporter: I noticed that you especially emphasized “joint pain” and “arthritis”, are these two different concepts? Is there any difference? Dr. Wang: This is a good question, joint pain can reflect the severity of the disease to a certain extent, but joint pain is a subjective feeling of the patient, which may vary greatly from person to person, while arthritis emphasizes more on objective examination findings, like what I mentioned above, joint swelling, redness, surface skin burning, are all signs of inflammation, and if bone destruction occurs, it may lead to the inability to straighten or bend the joint, etc. Reporter: So that’s it, what are the diseases that are really “arthritis”? The first one is often an acute attack, and most of the time, it’s the first time that a person has a rheumatoid fever. The former is often acute, mostly in children, and is a systemic disease caused by an acute streptococcal infection, but is not caused by a direct streptococcal infection. This kind of arthritis is characterized by affecting several joints, but asymmetrical and not fixed in position, mostly invading the large joints of the limbs, rarely involving the small joints of the hands and feet and the hip joints. Nowadays, due to the increasing application of antibiotics, streptococcal infections have decreased significantly and fewer people suffer from rheumatic fever, and if they do appear, they are mostly atypical. Another common type of arthritis is rheumatoid arthritis, which is an autoimmune disease caused by an autoimmune disorder (note that it is not hypoimmunity, but somehow hyperimmune function). The disease is most common in middle-aged women and involves swelling and pain in multiple joints, but is generally symmetrical, especially in the finger and wrist joints, but also in the elbow, knee and toe joints. Most patients have a slow onset and often persist or deteriorate from time to time. Improper treatment can eventually lead to joint destruction and deformation, such as the inability to straighten the arms, squat the knees, and skew the fingers, which can resemble a twist in appearance and seriously affect the patient’s ability to work and quality of life. Rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic disease that not only manifests itself in the joints, but may also lead to serious problems such as pneumonia, skin ulceration, and pericardial effusion. Usually, doctors will perform blood tests on patients, but we need to remind you that a positive rheumatoid factor does not necessarily mean rheumatoid arthritis, in fact, a positive rheumatoid factor can be seen in many conditions, such as dry syndrome, chronic hepatitis, tuberculosis and so on; therefore, we also recommend that patients can check the blood anti-cyclic citrullinated polypeptide antibodies (anti-CCP antibodies), this test is very helpful in diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis and determining the This test is very helpful in diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis and determining the prognosis. All rheumatic diseases are treated in our rheumatology department. Among the above three diseases, only rheumatoid arthritis can cause disability by destroying bone, but rheumatoid arthritis is not very scary, and the level of treatment has improved rapidly in recent years. The most important thing is: early detection, early treatment and standardized treatment. Early diagnosis and treatment will achieve twice the result with half the effort. Patients should remember not to blindly believe in the advertising campaigns of informal hospitals or clinics to avoid delaying the disease.