Rheumatoid arthritis, a very common disease in our rheumatology department, is easy to develop in women, with a male to female ratio of about 1:3. The disease can occur at any age, but is generally seen in 30-50. the prevalence in mainland China is about 0.2-0.36%.
Common symptoms.
Rheumatoid arthritis, as the name implies there must be arthritis, that must have joint pain. But what are the differences with ordinary joint pain? The following are the characteristics of rheumatoid arthritis.
1. Symmetrical joint swelling and pain. In other words, if the joint in the left hand hurts, the joint in the right hand may also hurt.
2. In the morning, there is joint stiffness and inflexibility, and it takes a long time (more than 20 minutes) to relieve.
3.It is mainly the small joints of both hands and feet that hurt. Of course, there are also other joint pains.
4.In addition to joint symptoms, there may be subcutaneous nodules and involvement of the heart, lungs and nervous system.
What tests.
If there are related symptoms, we need to do those tests? The best way is to go to the rheumatology department of a large local hospital, and the specialist will tell you what tests to do. Here, I will introduce the routine tests that need to be done.
1, rheumatoid arthritis patients, generally have elevated blood sedimentation and C-reactive protein, so the routine need to test these.
2, autoantibodies: rheumatoid arthritis is a type of autoimmune disease, so, need to check the autoantibodies. The common autoantibodies are rheumatoid factor, which can be found in many hospitals. There are some recent discoveries, such as anti-cyclic citrulline antibodies, which have better diagnostic value than rheumatoid factor, so they also need to be checked.
3, X-ray examination of the joints can detect some symptoms in the middle and late stages; while patients whose disease is still in the early stages can consider using MRI, which can detect early symptoms of the joints and surrounding synovium and cartilage.
What treatments are available?
If rheumatoid arthritis is diagnosed, timely treatment is needed because rheumatoid arthritis is an aggressive disease and if left untreated, many joints cannot be repaired after destruction.
Currently commonly used drugs.
1, chronic anti-rheumatic drugs, represented by methotrexate, including leflunomide, hydroxychloroquine, etc. have good efficacy. Of course, methotrexate is the gold standard of the gold standard, cheap and effective; therefore, we routinely use it as long as there are no contraindications for patients. By the way, since these drugs are called chronic anti-rheumatic drugs, it means that the onset of action is slow, usually taking about 2 months. Therefore, do not use a few days to say no effect.
2, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, mainly to control local inflammation, pain relief role. At present, there are many kinds, relatively speaking, the gastrointestinal side effects of Xilab are small, there is no contraindication, you can consider.
3. Biological agents, giving new hope to rheumatoid arthritis patients. It is effective and has few side effects. But there are good and bad, the price is also very expensive.
4, small molecule drugs, but also in recent years the development of the emergence of. For example, our country’s own research and development of Eramod, many patients with good results, worth looking forward to.
Non-pharmacological treatment, mainly joint exercise, after the relief of joint pain, patients need to properly exercise the joints to prevent and control joint adhesions together, to maintain joint function.
The key point is that these drugs need to be used under the guidance of a rheumatologist, and patients should not change or stop the drugs on their own initiative. As a patient, you need to cooperate with the treatment and have confidence.
Lastly, I believe that most patients can effectively control their disease and live a healthy and happy life if they adhere to the treatment, exercise and follow-up. I believe that tomorrow will be better.