The key difference between arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis symptoms is that the arthritis is an inflammation of the joint or joints resulting in pain and/or disability, joint swelling, and stiffness and its symptoms differ depending on the form of arthritis. On the other hand, rheumatoid arthritis is one type of inflammatory arthritis that causes synovial inflammation and its symptoms include a progressive, symmetrical, peripheral polyarthritis that occurs over a period of a few weeks or months. It occurs in patients between 30 and 50 years of age and further, most of the patients complain of pain and stiffness of small joints of the hands and feet that worsen in the morning. The affected joints are warm, tender and swollen.
What is necessary to emphasize here is that the most distinct difference between arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis is the fact that rheumatoid arthritis is a subset of arthritis rather than a separate disease entity.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What are Arthritis Symptoms
3. What are Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms
4. Similarities Between Arthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms
5. Side by Side Comparison – Arthritis vs Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms in Tabular Form
6. Summary
What are Arthritis Symptoms?
Arthritis is an inflammation of the joint or joints resulting in pain and/or disability, joint swelling, and stiffness. It can be due to numerous causes such as infection, trauma, degenerative changes or metabolic disorders. Therefore, the symptoms differ depending on the form of arthritis.
Osteoarthritis
- Mechanical pain with movement and/or loss of function
The accumulation of inflammatory mediators gives rise to a pain by stimulating the nociceptors. The Symptoms including the pain are gradual in onset and progressive. Furthermore, short-lived morning joint stiffness is one of the characteristic features of osteoarthritis. Functional limitation occurs because of the joint pain and swelling
- Crepitus – can feel and hear a crepitus when moving the joint.
- Bony enlargement – bony enlargement is due to the deposition of inflammatory deposits.
Spondyloarthritis
Ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, reactive arthritis, post-dysenteric reactive arthritis and enteropathic arthritis are included in this category.
Clinical Features of Ankylosing Spondylitis
- Back pain
- Pain in one or both buttocks which begins with the movements of the hip joints.
- Retention of the lumbar lordosis during spinal flexion
Clinical Features of Posoriatic Arthritis
- Monoarthritis, oligoarthritis, or polyarthritis can affect one or more joints.
- Distal interphalangeal arthritis, usually, affect the small joints of the fingers.
- In arthritis mutilans, there can be deformities in the joints such as changes in size and shape.
What are Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms?
Rheumatoid arthritis is a type of inflammatory arthritis that causes synovial inflammation. It presents with inflammatory symmetrical polyarthritis. Moreover, rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease where autoantibodies are produced against IgG and citrullinated cyclic peptide.
There is a spectrum of symptoms associated with rheumatoid arthritis.
- The typical presentation of rheumatoid arthritis includes a progressive, symmetrical, peripheral polyarthritis which occurs over a period of a few weeks or months in patients between 30 and 50 years of age.
- Most of the patients complain of pain and stiffness of small joints of the hands (metatarsophalangeal, proximal interphalangeal) and feet (metatarsophalangeal), which worsen in the morning.
- Distal interphalangeal joints are usually spared.
- The affected joints are warm, tender and swollen.
Figure 02: Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms
Nonarticular Manifestations
- Scleritis or scleromalacia – associated with pain and redness in the eyes
- Dry eyes and dry mouth
- Pericarditis- chest pain and exertional dyspnea are the characteristic features of pericarditis
- Lymphadenopathy- enlarged lymph node
- Pleural effusion- the patient will become breathless with the presence of an expanding pleural effusion.
- Bursitis
- Tendon sheath swelling
- Anemia- the patient may complain of lethargy, dyspnea, and fatigue during the initial presentation.
- Tenosynovitis
- Carpal tunnel syndrome- there can be numbness over the medial two or three fingers of the affected hand due to the compression of the median nerve within the carpal tunnel. The patient may find it difficult to move the affected fingers, and there can be wasting of the thenar eminence also.
- Vasculitis- characterized by the presence of a rash and sometimes abnormalities in the urinary habits.
- Splenomegaly
- Polyneuropathy
- Leg ulcers
What is the Similarity Between Arthritis And Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms?
- Both types of symptoms are due to the inflammations in the musculoskeletal system.
What is the Difference Between Arthritis And Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms?
Arthritis is an inflammation of the joint or joints resulting in pain and/or disability, joint swelling, and stiffness. Rheumatoid arthritis is a type of inflammatory arthritis that causes synovial inflammation.
With regard to the difference between arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, the symptoms in arthritis differ depending on the form of arthritis. However, there is a spectrum of symptoms associated with rheumatoid arthritis. More details are below.
Summary – Arthritis vs Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms
Arthritis can be defined as inflammation of the joint or joints resulting in pain and disability, joint swelling, and stiffness whereas rheumatoid arthritis is a type of inflammatory arthritis that causes synovial inflammation. Rheumatoid arthritis is, therefore, a subgroup of arthritis. Therefore, the symptoms in arthritis differ depending on the form of arthritis and in rheumatoid arthritis, there is a spectrum of symptoms.
Reference:
1.Parveen Kumar. Kumar and Clark’s Clinical Medicine. Edited by Michael L Clark, 8th ed.
Image Courtesy:
1.’Arthritis’ by Nick Youngson (CC BY-SA 3.0) via The Blue Diamond Gallery
2.’6942317880′ by david__jones (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr