What are rheumatic diseases?
Rheumatic diseases are a group of diseases that affect bones, joints and their surrounding soft tissues, such as muscles, bursae, tendons, fascia, blood vessels, nerves, etc. in general. Their causes can be infectious, immune, metabolic, endocrine, degenerative, geographic environmental, tumor, genetic, etc. According to Chinese medicine, rheumatism is the painful numbness of muscles and joints, unfavorable extension or enlargement caused by wind, cold and dampness attacking the body and blocking the meridians, resulting in poor flow of qi and blood. The names of these diseases in Chinese medical literature include: “rheumatism”, “joint disease”, “white tiger wind”, “gout”, “leaking shoulder wind”, and “gout”. “Leaky shoulder wind”, “Crane knee wind”, etc.
Main symptoms of common rheumatic diseases: (Patients with the following conditions should go to the rheumatology department promptly)
Pain (non-traumatic causes) is the main symptom of rheumatic diseases. Arthralgia, neck and shoulder pain, low back pain, and heel pain are often the main manifestations of rheumatic diseases, sometimes accompanied by joint swelling.
Rheumatoid arthritis often has symmetrical small joint pain, swelling, morning stiffness (morning stiffness of the diseased joints appears for a longer period of time after being stationary, such as a feeling of gluing, and gradually decreases after appropriate activities is called morning stiffness.) Other joints such as elbows, shoulders, ankles and toe joints may also be affected.
Ankylosing spondylitis is usually seen in young people, with early onset of lower back pain and hip pain, increased pain in the morning, at night, at rest, and reduced after activity.
Gouty arthritis Most often seen in men, with acute monoarticular inflammation, with a rapid onset and severe pain, the big toe is the preferred site, but can also occur in the ankle, dorsum of the foot, knee, elbow, wrist, hand and other single joints, with local redness, swelling, heat and pain. Sometimes it should also be distinguished from reactive arthritis.
Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease, which is commonly known as bone spurs, osteophytes, mostly seen in middle-aged and elderly people, with insidious onset, joint pain often involving the knee, hip, ankle, spine and distal interphalangeal joints of both hands, painful going up and down stairs, limited squatting and standing up, aggravated after activity and reduced after rest.
Rheumatic cold arthralgia, also called rheumatic symptoms, postpartum rheumatism Patients are afraid of wind and cold around the body, cold pain in muscles and joints all over the body after encountering wind and cold, which can improve after keeping warm, mostly seen in women.
Psoriatic arthritis 20-40% of patients with psoriasis (psoriasis) will have joint swelling and pain, which is clinically classified as reactive arthritis.
Erythema nodosum A common symptom is red tactile nodules (similar to red bumps after mosquito bites) on both lower extremities, or with fever and joint pain. Most commonly seen in leukoaraiosis, systemic lupus erythematosus.
Dry syndrome Most commonly seen in women, persistent dry mouth, even recurrent dental caries, swollen parotid glands, dry eyes, even the desire to cry, dry skin, etc.
Leukoplakia Repeated oral ulcers and even vulvar ulcers can be complicated by ophthalmia, erythema nodosum, etc.
Raynaud’s sign When the finger ends become pale when exposed to cold or cool water, then turn purple and flushed with pain, or with numbness and pain at the finger (toe) ends, and in severe cases, skin ulceration, it can be seen in a variety of rheumatic diseases, such as systemic sclerosis, lupus erythematosus, mixed connective tissue disease, etc.
Polymyositis/dermatomyositis There may be generalized muscle (especially neck and back muscles, proximal limb muscles) pain, muscle weakness, painful morning lifting at night, relieved after rest, elevated muscle enzymes, electromyography showing myogenic damage, etc. It should also be differentiated from rheumatic polymyalgia and fibromyalgia syndrome.
Systemic lupus erythematosus Most often seen in young women, recurrent fever, ineffective by antibiotic treatment, or facial erythema, or severe hair loss, or joint pain, or oral ulcers, or Raynaud’s phenomenon, etc. Sometimes simple fever should also be distinguished from adult still disease.
Misdiagnosis and misdiagnosis of rheumatic diseases occur.
Rheumatism became an independent discipline in the last two decades. Because it is an emerging specialty, its basic theory and clinical practice is still in the developmental stage, and there are few people specializing in rheumatology. At present, many hospitals in the country do not have rheumatology specialties, rheumatology specialists have not been established, resulting in rheumatology patients often have no access to doctors. On the other hand, due to low social awareness, people’s knowledge of rheumatism is quite lacking, and most people have a wrong understanding of rheumatism, such as: joint pain + rheumatoid factor positive = rheumatoid arthritis; joint pain + anti-“O” positive = rheumatic fever; joint pain + high blood uric acid = gout. Not only ordinary people, but also a considerable part of medical personnel have similar concepts. When it comes to spondyloarthropathies, dry syndrome, vasculitis, etc., many people may not have heard of them, not to mention the common sense of prevention and proper treatment of such diseases. According to epidemiological statistics, there are at least 120 million patients with rheumatic diseases in China. The shortage of professionals, a large number of patients do not receive timely and correct treatment, and the consequences are terrible. In the case of rheumatoid arthritis, for example, if correct diagnosis and effective treatment cannot be obtained within two years of the initial onset of the disease, 75% of the patients will be disabled for life.
The main treatment directions of rheumatic diseases.
The combination of Chinese and Western medicine in the treatment of rheumatic diseases has become the main clinical treatment program, mainly on the basis of Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment, one is to combine the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which can strengthen their antipyretic and analgesic efficacy, but also make up for the shortcomings of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which are not effective for a long time and cannot control the progress of the disease; the second is to combine the use of drugs to improve the condition, through the adjustment of the whole body Qi, blood, Yin and Yang, can improve the clinical symptoms Third, the combination of glucocorticoid drugs, in the process of hormone reduction, the disease is often prone to rebound, with Chinese medicine treatment can effectively reduce the patient’s dependence on hormones, and play a “more effective and less toxic” function. Therefore, we emphasize the combination of Chinese and Western medicine, Chinese medicine identification combined with Western medicine standard treatment, will achieve very good results.
The key to rheumatism treatment lies in early treatment, and the premise of early treatment is early diagnosis, so early diagnosis and early treatment are extremely important for rheumatism. If you or your friends or relatives have the above-mentioned symptoms, please go to the rheumatology department for consultation and timely diagnosis, so as to strive for the best treatment time.