Decoding Medical Symptoms: A Deep Dive into Diagnosing Inflammatory Arthritis
It is not unusual for people to come into a medical center or hospital with different symptoms and signs, and it is left to a medical practitioner to find out what could be possibly wrong and then administer the right treatment. So in this post, I will be doing a little post on medical symptom so we can learn together all the way through about a possible cause and possibly a diagnosis.
If a person comes into the hospital with multiple swollen joints, and high inflammatory marker in his blood work, the first thing is to ask questions. Questions such as if the patient feels pain in the joint, if the pain is coming from inside the joint capsule or outside the joint capsule.
If the pain is from the outside the joint capsule the problem can be a problem with the bone, the muscle, tendon, ligament, and bursa, but if the pain is from inside the joint capsule, then we can start to consider if it is an inflammatory cause such as an autoimmune disease, or infection, or it is a non-inflammatory cause such as wear and tear osteoarthritis.
Since the patient came into the hospital with swollen joints, and the blood work showed inflammatory markers in them, this is an inflammatory arthritis. The patient also shows signs that confirms this such as pain when at rest, and better when walking. Upon examination, the patient's joint is spongy rather than bonny as a result of the inflammation.
This examinations can only come out to be Rheumatoid arthritis, Psoriatic arthritis. To confirm this, X-rays and Blood Works, need to be done to confirm the type of arthritis the patient has. The earlier this patient is attended to, the better because this kind of inflammation and damage the joints.
Either it is Rheumatoid arthritis or Psoriatic arthritis, Prednisone is used in the short term, and Methotrexate is used to prevent the inflammation from coming back. Other inflammatory drugs can be given to the patient to help keep the inflammation in control.
With Rheumatoid Arthritis, the inflammation eats up the bone, and it can affect the eyes, the lungs, or the heart. This inflammation affects the whole body and it can be handle by suppressing the immune system of the patient. When the inflammation doesn't work with medications, biological therapy is introduced. These Biologics are genetically engineered proteins that targets specific part of the immune system thereby reducing inflammation. This type of medications are given through injection.
Diagnosing and treating inflammatory arthritis is a nuanced process that requires careful examination and consideration of a patient's symptoms and medical history. Understanding the nature of the pain and conducting appropriate tests are crucial in determining the correct course of treatment. With timely and appropriate intervention, the damaging effects of these conditions can be significantly mitigated, improving the patient's quality of life.
Post Reference
https://www.webmd.com/arthritis/swollen-joints-joint-effusion
https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/symptoms/joint-swelling
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/arthritis/psoriatic-arthritis
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3596149/
https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/2196539-overview?form=fpf
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/24/5/4901
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK441999/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6422329/
https://inflammregen.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41232-020-00133-8
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3182090/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8370108/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3667301/
https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2005/0901/p891.html
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