Facts you should know about rheumatoid arthritis (RA)

Rheumatoid arthritis often causes joint deformity.

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

  • 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