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What is Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Summary & Participants

More than two million people have been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in the United States. What is this disease, and how does it affect your joints?

Medically Reviewed On: July 18, 2008

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis is complex and takes many factors into consideration.

CLIFTON O. BINGHAM, MD: Rheumatoid arthritis is a condition that we diagnose based on a number of clinical symptoms and some laboratory markers. Oftentimes, a patient may present with one or two joints that are bothering him. And it’s only after a period of time that the pattern begins to look like the disease we call RA.

ERIC RUDERMAN, MD: X-rays can be helpful. You can see changes on X-rays, but if the symptoms are very early, if things have just started, the X-rays may be normal, and you may not see anything yet.

ANNOUNCER: Blood tests may help doctors make the diagnosis.

CLIFTON O. BINGHAM, MD: We look for elevations of what we call acute phase reactants and these are the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, which we often call the sed rate or ESR. Or the C-reactive protein or CRP. These are both elevated in many patients of rheumatoid arthritis. These are blood tests that reflect inflammation, not just in the joint, but in the body as a whole.

ANNOUNCER: A patient's blood may also be checked for antibodies often associated with rheumatoid arthritis.

ALISA KOCH, MD: These tests may include rheumatoid factor, which is an antibody. And it’s present in about 80 to 85% of patients. Over the last few years, there has been a second antibody that has come to the fore, which is also a good diagnostic marker for rheumatoid arthritis, and this antibody is called anti-citrullinated peptide, anti-CCP is how it’s commonly referred to. And it seems that anti-CCP is as good at picking up rheumatoid arthritis as rheumatoid factor. So it’s very important to have both the symptoms and signs, clinical symptoms and signs, as well as laboratory confirmation.

STEVEN ABRAMSON, MD: It’s very important that a person gets a diagnosis or an evaluation by a rheumatologist, because we have to be able to make that diagnosis even when the blood tests are negative so that we make the proper treatment decisions early, even in that first year of the disease.

ANNOUNCER: In spite of rheumatoid arthritis’ impact on patients’ lives, new treatment options are offering patients more control over their symptoms and a better quality of life.

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