What Is Destructive Arthritis?
Arthritis is a painful condition that can cause stiffness and pain in the affected joints. Arthritis can have a variety of forms and can affect different joints. Destructive arthritis can be a particularly severe form of arthritis because of the involvement of the immune system, which can lead to a rapidly progressing disease that can cause deformity of the joints, rendering them almost completely useless.
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Definition
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Destructive arthritis is any form of arthritis in which the cartilage is destroyed as part of the arthritis. Cartilage tissue in joints serves as a protective layer between the bones that make up the joint, preventing bone-on-bone contact. In destructive arthritis, the cartilage is worn away, causing pain and stiffness that worsens over time.
Symptoms of Destructive Arthritis
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Destructive arthritis symptoms include excessive swelling of the affected joints. In addition, the pain and stiffness from destructive arthritis tends to improve as the joint is used more and worse after rest. Destructive arthritis also progresses more quickly than other forms of arthritis.
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Rheumatoid arthritis
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Rheumatoid arthritis is an auto-immune condition. This means that the body's immune system attacks otherwise normal tissue throughout the body. Rheumatoid arthritis occurs when a patient's immune system becomes abnormally activated, causing it to attack and destroy the cartilage within bone joints. As a result, rheumatoid arthritis is one of the most common forms of destructive arthritis.
Sarcoid Arthritis
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Another form of destructive arthritis is that caused by sarcoid deposits. Sarcoid is essentially a mixture of bits of small blood vessels, connective tissue, and pieces of cells that form small deposits known as granulomas. These granulomas occur when the immune system has had a chronic infection to fight and can accumulate in the joints. As a result, these granulomas cause inflammation of the joint, which leads to destruction of the cartilage of the joint.
Treatment
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One of the distinguishing characteristics of destructive arthritis is how it is treated. Destructive arthritis can usually be effectively treated with corticosteroids or other anti-inflammatory medications. By reducing the amount of inflammation that the immune system is able to create, physicians are usually able to slow or halt the progression of the arthritis.
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