Early symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis

Diseases like rheumatoid arthritis are often encountered in daily life. The symptoms of different diseases are different, because only in this way can we better distinguish them and find better ways to treat them. No matter what type of disease it is, there is an early stage, because only when the early symptoms appear can we discover it, which makes it easier for us to treat it. Only treatment can restore us to good health.

No matter what type of disease it is, it will affect our physical health and daily life to some extent. Only when it is discovered at the earliest stage can it be treated in time and recovery will be fast. Understanding the symptoms of the disease is the first thing to do. So what are the early symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis?

Rheumatoid arthritis is a common acute or chronic connective tissue inflammation. It may recur and affect the heart. The clinical symptoms are migratory soreness, heaviness and pain in joints and muscles. It is an allergic disease. It is one of the main manifestations of rheumatic fever, and often begins with acute fever and joint pain.

Typical manifestations are mild or moderate fever and migratory polyarthritis. The affected joints are mostly large joints such as the knees, ankles, shoulders, elbows, and wrists. It is common for the disease to spread from one joint to another. The lesions are locally red, swollen, burning, and extremely painful. Some patients also have several joints affected at the same time. Atypical patients only have joint pain without other inflammatory manifestations. Acute inflammation generally subsides in 2 to 4 weeks without leaving sequelae, but it often recurs. If rheumatic activity affects the heart, myocarditis may occur and even residual heart valve disease may occur.

Clinical manifestations

1. Pain

Joint pain is the most common symptom of rheumatism. Pain may occur in joints throughout the body, but pain in the limbs and trunk may cause lesions in the internal organs and nervous system.

2. Muscle pain

Muscles may also experience pain symptoms, and may also experience muscle weakness, elevated muscle enzymes, and myogenic damage, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, mixed connective tissue disease, dermatomyositis, etc.

3. Irregular fever

Before rheumatism appears, there will be irregular fever, no chills, and antibiotic treatment will be ineffective. At the same time, there will be a rapid erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Systemic lupus erythematosus, acute neutrophilic febrile dermatosis, adult Still's disease, and seborrheic dermatitis can all have fever as the first symptom.

4. Skin and mucous membrane symptoms

Dermatomyositis, Sjögren's syndrome, Behcet's disease, and panniculitis may cause rash, oral ulcers, skin ulcers, reticular cyanosis, and eye symptoms.

5. Raynaud's sign

The fingertips will turn white when exposed to cold or when the mood changes, then turn purple, and finally turn red and be accompanied by numbness, pain, and severe skin ulcers. This can be seen in rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and mixed connective tissue disease.

6. Abnormal autoantibody blood indicators

Anti-ENA antibodies, anti-ds-DNA antibodies, antiplatelet antibodies, antinuclear antibodies, anticardiolipin antibodies, rheumatoid factor, etc.

The early symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis are pain, which usually manifests as muscle pain, irregular fever, and the most important thing is the appearance of skin and mucous membrane symptoms. Only by discovering the problem in time can we better treat it. Therefore, understanding the early symptoms of the disease is the only way to treat it effectively. This is very important when you want your body to recover from treatment.