In our daily outpatient work, many patients often ask with great anxiety: Doctor, I have a high rheumatoid factor, will my joints be deformed in the future? This indicates that the majority of patients confuse rheumatoid arthritis with rheumatoid arthritis. The rheumatoid factor that the patient refers to is the anti-hemolytic streptococcal O antigen, or anti-chain O. If we humans are infected with a bacterium called Streptococcus haemolyticus, we will all be anti-O positive, but only a small percentage of people will develop immune abnormalities related to this bacterial infection, which is rheumatoid arthritis. Most patients with rheumatoid arthritis have symptoms of sore throat and fever before the onset of the disease. The main manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis is wandering swelling and pain in the large joints, usually the knee and ankle joints are most common, followed by the shoulder, elbow and wrist, and the small joints of the hand are rare. However, arthritis caused by this disease is easier to treat and does not lead to joint deformation, except that some patients may suffer from rheumatic heart disease after repeated attacks. The main drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis is penicillin. The reference to rheumatoid is intended to distinguish it from rheumatism. Until the mid-19th century, people had a vague understanding of arthritis and called it “rheumatism”. Later, it was discovered that rheumatoid arthritis mainly manifests asymmetrical polyarthritis, which means that rheumatoid arthritis mainly affects the small joints of the hands and feet, and often there is symmetrical swelling and pain in multiple joints. Therefore, rheumatoid arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis have similarities and significant differences.