TYPES OF ARTHRITIS
If you suffer from psoriasis (a chronic skin disease) you may develop an arthritis similar to rheumatoid arthritis but less serious. The illness may come and go according to the severity of your skin disease.
Gout, due to excess uric acid deposits in the joints, can occur for the first time in the older person with or without a previous history of gout. You may know that the uric acid level in your blood has been high in the past but never had an attack of gout. You may be taking diuretics or receiving chemotherapy treatment for a malignancy, especially one affecting the blood, which often raises the level of uric acid. In gouty arthritis, usually only one joint is painful at a time, although occasionally more than one joint flares up. It affects the smaller joints, such as the big toe, and the pain is often severe, usually with redness and heat in the area of the inflamed joint. Elevated uric acid levels can also lead to kidney damage.
Pseudogout almost always occurs only in the elderly. This disease is similar to gout, although much larger joints, such as the knees and hips, are mainly affected. It is not associated with an elevation of uric acid as is gout. Another irritant, calcium pyrophosphate, settles in the joint and causes it to become inflamed. Pseudogout often occurs in a joint that already has osteoarthritis. It can occur after a physical illness that does not appear to be related to the joints, such as a heart attack or infection. Often, it follows an injury to the joint, which seems to precipitate inflammation. The attacks can be extremely painful and lead to severe disability until they are diagnosed and treated.
Sometimes you may think you have arthritis when, in fact, you have bursitis. The smooth lining around joints becomes inflamed and causes arthritis-like pain. The condition can be incapacitating, especially when it affects the shoulders. Treatment, such as cortisone injections into the inflamed sac, usually relieves the pain rapidly.
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