Things to Know About Arthritis Care (Part 9)
This week, let’s talk about the warning signs of serious rheumatic disease.
Symptoms of serious rheumatic disease may include persistent, worsening pains.
These pains are unrelieved by regular intake of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) or other potent analgesics.
Serious problems may also show nerve pains, vascular pains, and bone pains.
Usually when a patient is in this situation, fever, and weight loss may appear.
Most of the tine the elderly is the one most affected with serious rheumatic disorder.
More often, people with serious rheumatic disorder may have anemia, thrombocytopenia, leucocytosis, leucopenia, elevated erythrocide sedimentation rate, active urine sediment, abnormal radiographs, and elevated alkaline phosphatase, acid phosphatase, creatinine.
It is also important to avoid alcohol, smoking and to control the blood sugar as these can be risk factors for serious rheumatic diseases.
Most rheumatic diseases are diagnosed by history and physical examination, occasionally with the use of basic laboratory tests.
Analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs are a mainstay of therapy in most rheumatic diseases.
Therapy is highly individualized even in patients with the same rheumatic disease.
The recognition of a serious rheumatic disorder may be more important than making an actual diagnosis.