What is Rheumatoid Arthritis?

It is well-known that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an extremely painful and debilitating form of arthritis that affects older patients with a genetic predisposition to the disease. It is a common fear for individuals who have relatives with the disease, and fear developing it themselves. Rheumatoid arthritis can decrease life expectancy significantly and make the last years of a patient’s life much less comfortable than it might have been otherwise.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common inflammatory form of arthritis. In patients with rheumatoid arthritis, the synovial lining of several joints in the body is severely inflamed, causing severe pain and loss of motion. This can result in permanently bent or misshapen joints as well as “curving” of the bones themselves. Rheumatoid arthritis usually occurs in a symmetrical pattern, meaning that both sides of the synovial lining are affected equally.

Initially, patients with rheumatoid arthritis will experience pain and tingling in the koints of the hands, wrists, ankles and feet. Later, larger and more complicated joints will become involved, sparing very few in the body. This is why rheumatoid arthritis is so painful - it is nearly universal and cannot be corrected.

Approximately 70% of patients have the genetic markers for a predisposition to rheumatoid arthritis, which makes it an acquired autoimmune disease. Slightly fewer patients (approximately 60%) have rheumatoid factors, which are antibodies that occur in the blood stream. The more rheumatoid factors in the blood stream, the more debilitating the disease, and the worse the prognosis.