What are the signs of early arthritis?

  In modern society, human life expectancy has been largely extended, and the expansion of the width of life and the improvement of the quality of life are particularly important goals of modern medical work. It is increasingly important to learn preventive health care in order to obtain a good quality of life.  As an autoimmune disease that mainly involves bones, muscles and joints, and at the same time can cause damage to multiple organs of the body, rheumatic diseases, in addition to treatment, prevention and health care (functional exercise) are the “signature measures” to deal with these diseases, and are also extremely critical and important. As the old saying goes, “A doctor does not treat the disease before it happens”, and the role of prevention is evident. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to joint pains and other minor ailments in life, and to detect early signs of various rheumatic and immune diseases, so as to be able to see the smallest and know for a rainy day, in order to “kill” the disease in the cradle as early as possible.  Joint pain is a kind of discomfort in the joint area, which can be described as stabbing pain, dull pain, cutting pain, throbbing pain, burning sensation, etc. The pain varies in severity. It may or may not be accompanied by any visible abnormal joint manifestations. There are many causes of joint pain, such as injury, inflammation, allergic reactions, degenerative diseases, etc. However, arthralgia is most commonly seen in rheumatic diseases and is an important part of the clinical presentation of rheumatic diseases, and is even a common complaint in almost all rheumatology outpatients.  Arthritis focuses on the word “inflammation” and refers to inflammatory diseases of the joints caused by various factors, including infection, trauma, immunity, and other factors. The typical clinical manifestations of arthritis are joint pain, redness, swelling, increased skin temperature and functional impairment. However, not all patients with arthritis have all of these manifestations at the same time. Therefore, it is usually considered that arthralgia is the early manifestation of arthritis, while joint swelling and/or dysfunction should be the characteristic clinical manifestations of arthritis. Almost all rheumatic immune diseases can be accompanied by joint inflammation, such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, gout, dry syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, mixed connective tissue disease, etc. This requires the combination of clinical manifestations of joint inflammation, laboratory and imaging examinations to identify various diseases, and only early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment can better prevent rheumatic immune Only early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment can better prevent the further destruction of the body by rheumatic immune diseases and ensure the quality of life of patients.  Among rheumatic diseases, the main diseases that commonly cause joint pain are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.  Osteoarthritis is a chronic joint disease characterized by cartilage deformation, sclerosis and osteophytes, which is common in middle-aged and elderly people, and is commonly found in joints with more weight or activity, such as knee, hip, hand (distal phalangeal joint, first carpal metacarpal joint), foot (first metatarsal phalangeal joint, heel), spine (cervical and lumbar spine), etc. The manifestation is local joint pain and pressure pain, which improves at rest and worsens after activity, and imaging manifests as cartilage The imaging shows subchondral bone sclerosis, subchondral cystic changes and bone superfluous formation, and narrowing of joint space.  Rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic autoimmune disease with erosive arthritis as the main manifestation. It occurs in young and middle-aged women and is characterized by symmetrical, multiple, persistent arthritis involving mainly the small joints of both hands (proximal interphalangeal joints and metacarpophalangeal joints) and both wrists, with significant morning stiffness, positive rheumatoid factor and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies, and mainly erosive changes on imaging.  Although arthritis is different from arthralgia, arthralgia is one of the complaints of almost all kinds of arthritis patients and is an early sign of various rheumatic immune diseases. In case of sudden onset of severe pain, long-term recurrent attacks, persistent, multiple attacks, difficult to relieve and accompanied by systemic manifestations, it is necessary to promptly visit the rheumatology department for a clear diagnosis and timely treatment to avoid delaying the disease.