Doctors classify the severity of a patient’s RA using a classification and staging system. There are four stages and four classes of rheumatoid arthritis.

What should you know about Rheumatoid arthritis?

• The COVID-19 vaccine may be less effective in individuals with RA compared with the general population because of drugs against rheumatoid arthritis (DMARDs) administered to these patients.

• Rheumatoid arthritis signs and symptoms include

  • joint pain, such as in the joints of the feet, hands, and knees,

  • swollen joints,

  • fever,

  • limping,

  • loss of range of motion,

  • tender joints,

  • loss of joint function,

  • stiff joints,

  • fatigue,

  • joint redness,

  • rheumatoid nodules,

  • anemia,

  • joint warmth,

  • joint deformity, and

  • symptoms and signs that affect both sides of the body (symmetry).

• There is no cure for RA. The treatment of rheumatoid arthritis optimally involves a combination of patient education, rest and exercise, joint protection, medicines, and occasionally surgery.

• Early RA treatment results in a better prognosis.

• In rheumatoid arthritis, multiple joints are usually, but not always, affected (polyarthritis) in a symmetrical pattern.

• Damage to joints can occur early and does not always correlate with the severity of RA symptoms.

• The “rheumatoid factor” is an antibody that can be found in the blood of 80% of people with rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid factor is detected in a simple blood test. Possible risk factors for developing rheumatoid arthritis include genetic background, smoking, silica inhalation, periodontal disease, and microbes in the bowels (gut bacteria).

• The cause of rheumatoid arthritis is not known.

• Rheumatoid arthritis can affect people of all ages.

• NSAIDs, DMARDs, TNF alpha inhibitors, IL-6 inhibitors, T-cell activation inhibitors, B-cell depleters, JAK inhibitors, immunosuppressants, and steroids treat RA.

• Researchers have developed medicines that are biosimilar to biologic drugs, and many others are currently under study.

Continue reading:  https://www.medicinenet.com/rheumatoid_arthritis/article.htm?ecd=mnl_day_070921

Article submitted by Pat France, MSRN Member