How Do You Diagnose Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a progressive, systemic, autoimmune disease that causes joint inflammation. At onset, small joints such as the hands, wrists, and feet tend to be involved more than large joints. Because it is a systemic disease RA can cause significant internal organ damage to areas such as the lungs, skin, blood-producing organs, heart, and eyes.
More than 2 million Americans are affected by RA.
It is critical to make the diagnosis of RA as quickly as possible in order to prevent damage to both joints as well as internal organs.

The traditional criteria for establishing the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis are the American College of Rheumatology criteria:
1.Morning stiffness in and around joints, lasting at least I hour before maximal improvement.
2.Arthritis of 3 or more joint areas simultaneously with soft tissue swelling observed by a physician. The possible areas include the fingers, knuckles, wrsits, elbows, ankles, knees, and feet.
3.Arthritis affecting the hand joints with at least 1 area swollen in a wrist, knuckle or finger.
4.Symmetric arthritis with simultaneous involvement of the same joint areas on both sides of the body (bilateral involvement of the fingers, knuckles, or feet is acceptable without absolute symmetry.
5.Rheumatoid nodules: Subcutaneous nodules over bony prominences, or extensor surfaces, […]

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