Arthritis and Other Symptoms Sharing Diseases
A definition of arthritis would explain it as a chronic or acute change in the function of an articulation, generated by a process of inflammation. A joint, or articulation, is the flexible part of the body that unites two or more bones. It is protected by a joint capsule, same as the cartilage that contains joint fluid. These enable the body to move. When the articulation is inflamed, arthritis occurs. There are many types of arthritis with different signs, symptoms and severity degree.
It is not the case to take any chronic part of the muscles or bones for arthritis. There may also be other causes that generate the symptoms.
Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is also known as degenerative joint disease, or DID and is the most frequent type of arthritis. It implies the destruction of cartilage. It affects many people in their aging process but it is a disease not a normal thing to happen at older ages.
Rheumatoid arthritis
RA is a very frequent type. About 1-2 % of the globe population has it. The name can recall the French term that refers to rhumatisme, a musculoskeletal pain producing disease, but RA involves the articulations and has no relationship to any viral infection.
RA has a symmetric, chronic character and represents a polyarthritis because it affects more than five separate joints. It may be diagnosed by means of the rheumatoid factors, other tests performed in laboratory referable to inflammation, rheumatoid nodules and perpetual destruction of articulations.
Medications are mainly based on analgesics like NSAIDs, but an important part is also attributed to treatment that slows the disease. In case it manifests for more than half a year, the articulations are destroyed and disabled and premature death may come. The acute need for positive facts in this case led to the apparition of DMARDs.
The disease modifying agents act rapidly and stop the disease. For some years, systemic corticosteroids were considered to belong to the DMARD category. But nowadays, the most frequent medicine belonging to this category is methotrexate that is also used in cancer. Other such substances are gold salts, antimalaries, sulfasanzine, tetracyclines, cyclosporines or leflutamide, etanecerpt, and infliximab. However, the disease is significantly easier to control than it used to be.