“How is rheumatoid arthritis ruled out?”
I have a family history of rheumatoid arthritis, and now I'm starting to exhibit the first symptoms of them. I watched my mother deal with this condition for so long, so I'm hoping I don't have it. My doctor wants to do some tests to make sure it is actually rheumatoid arthritis and not regular arthritis. What tests will be used to confirm RA?
4 Answers
By doing blood test and X Rays
By doing somme immunologic lab tests.
The diagnosis of RA can be made in a patient with inflammatory arthritis involving three or more joints, positive RF and/or anti-citrullinated peptide/protein antibody, disease duration of more than six weeks, and elevated CRP or ESR, but without evidence of diseases with similar clinical features.
●RA may also be diagnosed in patients without all of the classic findings of disease. This includes patients with seronegative RA, those with clinically quiescent disease, and those with recent onset RA. Such patients have findings/clinical features that are generally consistent with those described as meeting the American College of Rheumatology (ACR)/European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) classification criteria for RA.
●RA may also be diagnosed in patients without all of the classic findings of disease. This includes patients with seronegative RA, those with clinically quiescent disease, and those with recent onset RA. Such patients have findings/clinical features that are generally consistent with those described as meeting the American College of Rheumatology (ACR)/European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) classification criteria for RA.
X-rays and blood work can be useful in confirming the diagnosis, however, rheumatoid arthritis is a clinical diagnosis meaning it is based on signs (physical findings the doctor sees) and symptoms (things the patient reports).
