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rheumatoid arthritis
a chronic systemic disease, classified as a type of collagen disease, characterized by inflammatory changes throughout the body's connective tissues. It usually strikes during the most productive
years of adulthood (ages 20 to 40), although some people are affected as infants or in old age. The cause is unknown, and
there may not be one specific cause. In about 75 per cent of patients the onset is gradual, with only mild symptoms at first.
These may include malaise, fever, weight loss, and morning joint stiffness. Some joints may become swollen, painful, and inflamed.
Most patients have increasingly severe and frequent attacks with subsequent joint damage and deformity. Besides the joint
changes, there is atrophy of muscles, bones, and skin adjacent to the affected joint. The most evident lesions are subcutaneous
nodules, usually over bony prominences such as the elbows.
Copyright 2007. An Elsevier publication. All rights reserved.
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