Rheumatoid Arthritis
Symptoms & Signs of Rheumatoid Arthritis
Courtesy: Medicinenet
Signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis may include:
Early rheumatoid arthritis tends to affect your smaller joints first — the joints in your wrists, hands, ankles and feet. As the disease progresses, your shoulders, elbows, knees, hips, jaw and neck also can become involved. In most cases, symptoms occur symmetrically — in the same joints on both sides of your body.
Signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis may include:
- Joint pain
- Joint swelling
- Joints that are tender to the touch
- Red and puffy hands
- Firm bumps of tissue under the skin on your arms (rheumatoid nodules)
- Fatigue
- Morning stiffness that may last for hours
- Fever
- Weight loss
Early rheumatoid arthritis tends to affect your smaller joints first — the joints in your wrists, hands, ankles and feet. As the disease progresses, your shoulders, elbows, knees, hips, jaw and neck also can become involved. In most cases, symptoms occur symmetrically — in the same joints on both sides of your body.
Symptoms may come and go
Rheumatoid arthritis signs and symptoms may vary in severity and may even come and go. Periods of increased disease activity — called flare-ups or flares — alternate with periods of relative remission, during which the swelling, pain, difficulty sleeping and weakness fade or disappear.
Rheumatoid arthritis signs and symptoms may vary in severity and may even come and go. Periods of increased disease activity — called flare-ups or flares — alternate with periods of relative remission, during which the swelling, pain, difficulty sleeping and weakness fade or disappear.
