| Psoriatic
Arthritis
Psoriatic
arthritis is a chronic (long-term), progressive, inflammatory
arthritis (swelling and tenderness of the joints). People
with it can have swollen, tender joints, as well as
nail changes, and the scaly, raised, red skin changes
of psoriasis. |
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Inflammation most commonly involves
the joints of the hands, wrists, neck, back, knees,
ankles and feet. The pain and stiffness are usually
worse in the morning, or after rest, and can improve
with physical activity. The severity can vary from mild
disease affecting only a few joints without any noticeable
pain to severe disabling and painful arthritis with
deformity and destruction of joints. In people with
mild arthritis, the condition can remain undiagnosed
and might have minimal impact on their quality of life.
More severe forms of can occur in people with multiple
affected joints (more than four), and in younger, often
female patients. Early diagnosis and treatment is important
to prevent destruction and deformity of the joints.
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In most people, the skin lesions
of psoriasis usually occur before arthritis develops.
Less commonly, arthritis can occur at the same time
or before skin changes occur. In the past, it was believed
that approximately 5 percent of patients with psoriasis
had psoriatic arthritis. Recent research has determined
that approximately 15 to 30 percent of patients with
psoriasis do develop psoriatic arthritis.
It belongs to a group of conditions
known as seronegative spondyloarthropathies. The term
"seronegative" means that the blood (sero)
is negative for a certain factor present in rheumatoid
arthritis. The blood test is for the rheumatoid factor,
which is a protein found in the blood of most patients
with another type of arthritis called rheumatoid arthritis.
The term "spondylo" means spine, and "arthropathy"
means painful, swollen joints. Spondyloarthropathy refers
to a group of conditions that share several features,
including:
a pattern of arthritis that affects
the spine and extremities;
inflammation of ligaments and
tendons;
inflammation of other organs
such as the eye;
evidence of a family inheritance.
In
the past,it may have been under recognized. Also, accurate
data has been difficult to gather for several
reasons:
Patients with might not feel
much pain, so the disease can go unnoticed until it
has progressed and
there are deformities.
This form of psoriasis can be
a difficult type of arthritis to diagnose, and doctors
may misdiagnose it
for another form of arthritis. There has been a lack
of widely accepted criteria for diagnosing
psoriatic arthritis.
New criteria are currently being
developed by rheumatologists to assist in diagnosing
and assessing
psoriatic arthritis.
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