Rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic disease that is characterized by inflammation of the synovial membrane of the joints. The progression of the disease can cause destruction of joints and loss of function. Drugs and methods of treatment are endless and clinical outcomes have improved, resulting in not only symptom relief for many patients, but also an improved quality of life due to improved joint function.
Myths about the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
Myth 1: Positive rheumatoid factor is rheumatoid arthritis
Many patients and even doctors believe that joint pain combined with a positive rheumatoid factor is rheumatoid arthritis, which is a misconception. The rheumatoid factor itself is an autoantibody produced by the body against degenerate immunoglobulin G as an antigen, and is called rheumatoid factor because it is first found in the serum of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. 5% to 10% of normal human serum can also be measured positive for rheumatoid factor, but the titer is low, and only a titer of 1:64 or higher has diagnostic significance. The same rheumatoid factor negative can not exclude rheumatoid arthritis, there are few parts of the clinical patients rheumatoid factor is always negative.
Myth 2: Anti-rheumatic treatment is anti-inflammatory and pain relief
Many patients, including primary care doctors, believe that anti-rheumatism is the use of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs. If you use some anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving drugs, your joints won’t hurt anymore and you’ll be fine. In fact, the key to treating rheumatoid arthritis is to prevent joint destruction and deformity. The current treatment of rheumatoid drugs in addition to analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs, there are glucocorticoids, immunosuppressants, biological agents.
Misconception 3: Self-taking “pure Chinese medicine recipes, ancestral secret recipes”
Here especially to remind patients must be wary of these so-called “pure Chinese medicine recipes, ancestral secret recipes”, the use of drugs must be formal, do not take their own drugs without the drug batch number, contraindications, manufacturers’ addresses, etc., to use drugs with the State Drug Registration Number, in order to avoid misuse of hormones, long-term use of proprietary Chinese medicine containing a large number of hormones led to femoral neck The cases of necrosis of femoral neck caused by long-term use of Chinese patent medicines containing large amounts of hormones are often reported in China. Generally, they are used in the acute stage, when immunosuppressive drugs are not yet effective, or in small doses. Once side effects such as osteoporosis and hypertension appear, the dosage needs to be reduced or stopped under the guidance of a doctor. You cannot trust certain herbal medicine and liquor, even Chinese medicine, has toxic side effects, and its even can lead to serious toxic reactions that can endanger life. Chinese medicine has unique advantages in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, but of course there are also flaws, to take the advantages and avoid the disadvantages, so you should apply Chinese medicine treatment under the guidance of the doctor’s orders.
Myth 4: If you have joint pain, you don’t want to move, and if you don’t want to move, you’re bedridden
Rheumatoid patients should adhere to the appropriate exercise, can maintain physical fitness and restore joint function. Otherwise, the body will gradually weaken, the limbs and even the whole body muscle wasting atrophy, joint stiffness, deformation, and become a lifelong disability. Patients need to rest during the acute phase of joint swelling. After the acute period, flexion and extension exercises of the hip, knee and ankle joints can be done in bed, and physical therapy is also available. Gradually increase the exercise of living ability such as dressing, eating and bathing to prevent joint deformation. It is worth advocating activities in warm water, which can not only reduce joint pain and promote muscle relaxation, but also improve joint mobility, muscle strength and endurance.
Myth 5: Stop using drugs after symptoms are relieved
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease, there is no complete cure, the vast majority of patients in the standardized, systematic and orderly treatment can achieve clinical remission, so that patients can live a normal life, so rheumatoid patients must adhere to the medication treatment, can not be good scars to forget the pain. The consequence of doing so is that the disease will become increasingly serious.
Myth 6: Not monitoring the side effects of drugs after using them
Rheumatoid arthritis patients, especially patients with a long history of disease, in the process of long-term medication, they think they know their condition better than the specialist, in the process of medication does not pay attention to check the blood, urinary routine, liver and kidney function, etc., that their symptoms are very good, no need to do those tests, spending money, in fact, that is extremely wrong, any patient’s understanding of their own disease is one-sided, are In fact, that is extremely wrong, any patient’s understanding of their own disease is one-sided, they all start from their own disease, lack of systemic related to the disease, and the toxic side effects of some drugs appear before the appearance of symptoms. Therefore, the toxic side effects of drugs should be monitored along with the standardized application of drug therapy.
Among the rheumatic diseases rheumatoid arthritis is
The incidence of rheumatoid arthritis is one of the high incidence diseases, there have been many misconceptions about rheumatoid, such as some people believe that rheumatoid is only a joint disease; while others compare rheumatoid to an immortal cancer. In the diagnosis, some people believe that rheumatoid factor negative is not rheumatoid, positive must be rheumatoid, in the treatment of some patients are overly enthusiastic in the treatment of ancestral secret recipes, prescriptions, delayed the best time for treatment, so that the disability rate of rheumatoid patients in China is significantly higher than the statistics of developed countries, patients not only quality of life decline, bringing great misfortune to the family, but also brought a great burden on society.
Rheumatoid patients are mostly middle-aged women aged 30-50 years old, with a prevalence of 0.32%-0.36% in China, and the ratio of female patients to male patients is 3:1, mainly manifested as symmetrical, chronic, progressive arthritis, whose pathology and changes in the condition are very complex, and generally common symptoms are cartilage surface of the joint, subchondral Chronic inflammation of the cartilage, subchondral bone, joint capsule, and ligaments. This causes deformity or ankylosis of the joints and eventually results in complete loss of function of the damaged joints. This fatal destructive effect on the bone and joint is an inflammatory process caused by the body’s autoimmune response.
As can be seen, rheumatoid arthritis is different from general joint inflammation and is a very complex autoimmune disease whose etiology is related to genetic factors and the external environment. Microbial infection factors are important factors that trigger the immune response to rheumatoid arthritis to induce the disease, which is a very complex pathogenesis of the disease. Therefore, rheumatoid patients must go to a specialist rheumatology hospital to avoid delaying treatment, resulting in lifelong regrets.
There are strict diagnostic criteria to confirm the diagnosis of rheumatoid rheumatism. It is common to have pain in the small joints of the hands and feet with symmetrical characteristics, swollen and painful joints in the fingers and near the heel, swollen and painful joints of the wrist, and this swelling and pain is aggravated after rest, especially in the morning after waking up, stiffness and boarding of the joints, which can improve after a while of activity, and swollen joints and increased local skin temperature when the synovitis of the patient is severe, and generally not red. Both pain and swelling last longer, often more than 6 weeks, which is different from other causes of arthritis.
Manifestations of rheumatoid arthritis
Morning stiffness lasts at least one hour. Patients feel stiffness in their fingers after waking up in the morning and cannot clench their hands into fists.
The most commonly affected joints are wrist, proximal interphalangeal joint, metacarpophalangeal joint, metatarsophalangeal joint, knee, ankle and elbow, followed by shoulder and hip joints.
③ At least one of the proximal interphalangeal joints of the metacarpophalangeal and wrist joints is swollen and effused, that is, there is swelling or effusion;
④swollen joints are symmetrical with subcutaneous rheumatoid nodules;
⑤ Positive rheumatoid factor
⑥X-ray changes. In laboratory tests, serum rheumatoid factor is checked in patients with rheumatoid rheumatism, and the positive rate only accounts for about 70% of rheumatoid rheumatism, but a positive rheumatoid factor does not necessarily mean rheumatoid rheumatism. About 5% of normal healthy people or the elderly rheumatoid factor can also appear positive, if the rheumatoid factor is positive results, to further check the titer of rheumatoid factor, the higher the titer, the more diagnostic significance. And anti perinuclear factor (ADF), anti-cuculline peptide antibody CCP, anti-keratin antibody (AKA) can be done to further clarify the diagnosis.
These tests are immunological tests for rheumatoid rheumatism that have been carried out in recent years and have a very clear significance for the early diagnosis and treatment of rheumatoid rheumatism. In addition, patients with rheumatoid arthritis should also undergo X-ray examination of swollen joints to help understand the lesions of bone and joint in rheumatoid patients. It is worth noting that the diagnosis of rheumatoid cannot be made solely on the basis of swollen and painful joints. Not all joint pain is rheumatoid arthritis, so patients with joint swelling and pain should not think they have rheumatoid without a diagnosis from a rheumatology specialist at a regular hospital. Be sure to go to the regular specialist hospital to confirm the diagnosis, once the diagnosis of rheumatoid rheumatism should not be pessimistic, because the first one or two years of rheumatoid rheumatism is the best time for treatment, if you can in a timely manner, comprehensive and rapid control of the disease under the guidance of experts in rheumatology specialist hospital.
Interrupt the development, most patients are able to restore health. Rheumatoid patients are not limited to joint lesions, the disease may also affect cardiovascular, nerve, lung and pleura, lymph nodes and other organs. Patients with extra-articular symptoms or rheumatoid nodules are more severely ill, and such patients may develop rheumatoid nodules in important organs. For patients with acute fulminant rheumatoid disease, the prognosis is poorer if the systemic symptoms are severe and joint destruction is obvious. Early and active treatment plays an important role in determining the prognosis of rheumatoid patients. Therefore, rheumatoid patients are reminded that rheumatoid must be diagnosed early and treated promptly at a regular specialist hospital.