Rheumatic diseases refer to a group of diseases that mainly affect joints, muscles, bones and soft tissues around joints, such as tendons, ligaments, bursae, fascia and other parts of the body. Rheumatic diseases can affect the whole body, causing lung, kidney, heart and other important organ lesions, and even life-threatening. Rheumatism has become a relatively common disease, but because some patients do not go to the relevant departments in the early stage, standardized diagnosis, resulting in not getting timely diagnosis and treatment!
So what kind of symptoms should be seen at the rheumatology department?
1. Joint swelling or pain.
Most of the rheumatic immune disease manifestations have joint symptoms, can be mild or heavy, can last for a short time or for a long time, can be accompanied by local redness and fever, or can only be manifested as pain. They may be wandering or fixed, or they may be episodic. Rheumatic joint swelling is a symptom of puffiness and swelling around a joint. The swollen area is swollen and higher than the normal skin, and the skin wrinkles become lighter or disappear, or are shiny, and are moist and soft or sunken when pressed. Swollen joints are more common in the joints of the extremities, mostly in the elbow, wrist, metacarpophalangeal and interphalangeal joints in the upper extremities, and in the knee, ankle, metatarsophalangeal and interphalangeal joints in the lower extremities. The swelling may occur in one or more joints, or symmetrically. It is important to note that if there is significant swelling of the joints, please go to the hospital immediately.
2. Fever of unknown origin.
It is not effective after simple conventional anti-inflammatory or anti-tuberculosis treatment, especially if it is not effective after antibiotic treatment and there is no obvious sign of tumor. The management of long-term fever has always been a difficult problem in internal medicine. Rheumatism is one of the three major causes, and the other two causes are infection and tumor.
3. Skin and mucosal symptoms.
Unexplained rash, photosensitivity, oral ulcers, vulvar ulcers, eye symptoms, reticular bruising, skin ulcers, etc. Ulcers of rheumatic diseases are mainly distributed in the skin and mucous membrane areas, such as the oral cavity, vulva and digestive tract, etc. Their depth and area vary, and are often accompanied by pain or bleeding. Rheumatic diseases such as leukoplakia, systemic lupus erythematosus, and Wright’s syndrome are the most common. In case of recurrent ophthalmia, external genital ulcers and oral ulcers: this manifestation can occur in leukoencephalopathy.
4. Raynaud’s phenomenon.
Raynaud’s phenomenon is the appearance of hands or feet turning white when cold or mood changes, turning red when getting warm or mood stabilization, and finally turning to normal color. Many diffuse connective tissue diseases such as mixed connective tissue disease, systemic sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, etc. can appear this phenomenon.
5. Dryness of the mouth and eyes.
Dryness of the mouth and eyes is not only seen in diabetes, use of certain drugs such as antidepressants and urolithiasis, but more often seen in primary or secondary dry syndrome.
6, myalgia muscle weakness.
If there is muscle pain, weakness accompanied by elevated muscle enzymes, electromyography shows myogenic damage, etc., suggesting rheumatic diseases. Such as dermatomyositis, polymyositis, metabolic myopathy and tumor-induced myopathy can appear this performance.
7. Lower back pain and alternating hip pain.
Many patients with ankylosing spondylitis, undifferentiated spondyloarthropathies, etc. can develop these symptoms, which mainly manifest as awakening at night, especially in the second half of the night with back pain, accompanied by a sense of morning stiffness, and symptoms can be improved after activity often accompanied by heel pain or other tendon end site pain.
8. Multi-system or organ damage.
Most diffuse connective tissue diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic vasculitis, systemic sclerosis, etc. can involve multiple organs or systems throughout the body.
9. Other manifestations.
Such as nodular erythema, photosensitivity, recurrent thrombosis, joint or muscle stiffness, recurrent auricular swelling and pain, recurrent purulent or bloody nasal discharge, recurrent miscarriage, waxy fingers (toes), local or generalized skin sclerosis, generalized pain with insomnia and cold and fearful limbs may be manifestations of some rheumatic immune diseases.
In short, the performance of rheumatic immune disease is diverse, the above clinical symptoms are only some common manifestations, the number of patients suffering from this kind of disease is increasing, I hope that the majority of patients can always be vigilant, timely to the rheumatic immune disease specialist to avoid missed diagnosis and misdiagnosis!