Rheumatoid Arthritis Health Article

Causes and symptoms

The underlying event that promotes RA in a person is unknown. Given the known genetic factors involved in RA, some researchers have suggested that an outside event occurs that triggers the disease cycle in a person with a particular genetic makeup.

Many researchers are examining the possibility that exposure to an organism (like a bacteria or virus) may be the first event in the development of RA. The body's normal response to such an organism is to produce cells that can attack and kill the organism, protecting the body from the foreign invader. In an autoimmune disease like RA, this immune cycle spins out of control. The body produces misdirected immune cells, which accidentally identify parts of the person's body as foreign. These immune cells then produce a variety of chemicals that injure and destroy parts of the body.

RA can begin very gradually, or it can strike quickly. The first symptoms are pain, swelling, and stiffness in the joints. The most commonly involved joints include hands, feet, wrists, elbows, and ankles, although other joints may also be involved. The joints are affected in a symmetrical fashion. This means that if the right wrist is involved, the left wrist is also involved. Patients frequently experience painful joint stiffness when they first get up in the morning, lasting for perhaps an hour. Over time, the joints become deformed. The joints may be difficult to straighten, and affected fingers and toes may be permanently bent (flexed). The hands and feet may curve outward in an abnormal way.

Many patients also notice increased fatigue, loss of appetite, weight loss, and sometimes fever. Rheumatoid nodules are bumps that appear under the skin around the joints and on the top of the arms and legs. These nodules can also occur in the tissue covering the outside of the lungs and lining the chest cavity (pleura), and in the tissue covering the brain and spinal cord (meninges). Lung involvement may cause shortness of breath and is seen more in men. Vasculitis (inflammation of the blood vessels) may interfere with blood circulation. This can result in irritated pits (ulcers) in the skin, tissue death (gangrene), and interference with nerve functioning that causes numbness and tingling.

Juvenile RA is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the joints of children less than 16 years old. It is estimated to affect as many as 250,000 children in the United States alone. Most children with juvenile RA have arthritis when the illness starts, which affects multiple joints in 50% of these children, and only one joint in 30%. In all, 20% of the children affected by juvenile RA have the acute systemic form of the disease, which is characterized by fever, joint inflammation, rash, liver disease, and gastrointestinal disease.

Two periods of childhood are associated with an increased incidence of onset of juvenile RA. The first is from one to three years of age, and the second, from eight to 12 years. When more than four joints are affected, the disease is described as being polyarticular. If less than four joints are affected, the disease is known as pauciarticular juvenile RA, and this particular manifestation falls into two categories. The first occurs in girls aged one to four years old, and the onset of joint involvement is in the knees, ankles, or elbows. The second form occurs in boys aged eight years and older, and involves the larger joints, such as those of the hips and legs.