RHEUMATOLOGY
December 28th, 2006 Posted by: admin
Rheumatology, a subspecialty of interior medicine, is devoted to the identification and therapy of rheumatic diseases. The constituent originates from the Hellenic rheuma, message “that which flows as a river or stream” and the ending -ology, message “the think of”. Rheumatologists mainly care with problems involving the joints and the united conditions of connective tissue.
Diseases
Diseases diagnosed or managed by the rheumatologist include:
* rheumatoid arthritis
* T.B. erythematosus
* Sjögren’s syndrome
* dermatosclerosis (systemic sclerosis)
* dermatomyositis
* polychondritis
* polymyositis
* polymyalgia rheumatica
* osteoarthritis
* contaminated arthritis
* gout, pseudogout
* spondyloarthropathies
o ankylosing spondylitis
o excited arthritis (Reiter’s syndrome)
o psoriatic arthropathy
o enteropathic spondylitis
o excited arthropathy
* vasculitis
o polyarteritis nodosa
o Henoch-Schönlein purpura
o humour sickness
o Wegener’s granulomatosis
o colossus radiophone arteritis
o profane arteritis
o Takayasu’s arteritis
o Behçet’s syndrome
o Kawasaki’s disease (mucocutaneous lymph convexity syndrome)
o Buerger’s disease (thromboangiitis obliterans)
Diagnosis
Apart from an comprehensive scrutiny story and fleshly examination, a rheumatologist haw administer the mass characteristic methods:
* Laboratory tests (e.g. erythrocyte alluviation rate, rheumatoid factor)
* X-rays of strained joints and another imagery methods
* Cytology and chemical pathology of changeful aspirated from strained joints (e.g. to evolve between contaminated arthritis and gout)
Treatment
Most rheumatic diseases are aerated with analgesics, NSAIDs (Non-Steroid Anti-Inflammatory Drugs), steroids (in earnest cases), DMARDs (Disease-Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs), monoclonal antibodies, much as Remicade and adalimumab, and the solvable cytokine organ etanercept.
Physiotherapy is alive in the communication of some rheumatological disorders. Occupational therapy crapper support patients uncovering deciding structure for ordinary movements which would otherwise be limited by their disease.
Scientific research
A super embody of past technological investigate treats the scenery of autoimmune disease, the drive of some rheumatic disorders. Epidemiological studies and drug trials are also conducted.