How to Detect Arthritis

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Dr. David Hill, and today we are going to talk about detecting arthritis. The first thing we need to know is what do we mean when we say arthritis. Arthritis is a word the doctors use to describe any pain or inflammation in the joints. And there are lots and lots of different disease processes that can cause arthritis. The two we think about the most commonly are osteoarthritis, which always effects older people. And is thought of as a wear and tear arthritis, although it is not really clear that all osteoarthritis is caused by wear and tear. You can see how confusing this can be. The other types of arthritis are a whole group of diseases where the body's immune system for some reason attacks the joints themselves causing inflammation. So trying to identify the cause of an arthritis always requires an excellent history and physical exam. You doctor is going to want to know which joints hurt, when do they hurt. Arthritis that effects joints on one side of the body is usually different from arthritis that effects joints on both sides of the body. The types of arthritis that effect the small joints like those in the hands or the knuckles or the toes are often different from the arthritis that effects large joints like the knees and hips. So you want to take note of what is hurting. Do you hurt worse when you first wake up in the morning, is it helpful to sort of stretch out and get moving, or do you hurt more after you have been active. Does your joint pain change with weather? We also like to know if there are other symptoms coming with the arthritis. Clues like fever, fatigue, even things that seem completely unrelated like sores in the mouth, or pain when you go to urinate can all actually be related to the cause of the arthritis. So keep track of these symptoms when you talk to your doctor. Now doctors have a variety of ways of trying to figure out what is going on. Listening to you is one of the most important, the joint exam is very helpful. You are probably going to have a largely unclothed or gowned exam where the doctor looks at all the joints of the body to see how they are functioning. X-rays can be very helpful, and then there are a variety of lab tests. Some of the most common are A&A, rheumatoid factor, which look for specific types of autoimmune arthritis. There are labs that look for inflammation like sed rate or C reactive protein. But actually interpreting these labs can be very complicated, and they can even be a little wishy washy when you get them back. So you doctor is going to want to put together the entire picture. What hurts, when it hurts, what makes it better, what other symptoms go with it, the physical exam, the x-ray, the labs, and try and figure out what is going to help you the most. Talking about diagnosing arthritis, I am Dr. David Hill."