The Rheumatoid Factor Test

The rheumatoid factor blood test (RF) helps diagnose Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). It measures rheumatoid factor, a chemical in the blood of many, but not all, people with RA. By itself, it does NOT show whether you have rheumatoid arthritis or not.
The Rheumatoid Factor Test gives your doctor more information to consider when diagnosing your condition, it does not necessarily mean you have RA. It is used along with your physical exam, other tests, and your symptoms to help diagnose your condition.  

People with other autoimmune conditions, such as lupus and Sjogren's syndrome, can also have a positive Rheumatoid Factor. So can people with infections such as hepatitis and mononucleosis. 

False positives occur in 5% of healthy individuals and in up to 20% of people over 65 years of age. False positives also occur in inflammatory condition such as Sjögren's Syndrome, Lupus and Systemic Sclerosis.

Some healthy people can have rheumatoid factor in their blood too. Also some people with RA don’t have a positive RA result. That’s why this test will not,

The higher the level in rheumatoid disease the worse the joint destruction and the greater the chance of systemic involvement.

What Abnormal Results Mean

An abnormal result means the test is positive, which means higher levels of rheumatoid factor have been detected in your blood. The higher the level, the more likely one of these conditions is present. There are also other tests for these disorders that help make the diagnosis.
People with the following diseases may also have high levels of rheumatoid factor:

• Rheumatoid arthritis 
• Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
• Sjögren's Syndrome 
• Scleroderma
• Systemic lupus erythematosus
• Adult Still's disease
• Dermatomyositis
• Sarcoidosis
• Felty's syndrome
• Systemic sclerosis 
• Infective endocarditis.
• Infectious mononucleosis.
• Hepatitis.
• Tuberculosis.
• Syphilis.
• HIV.
• Influenza.
• Malignancy.
• Leukaemia.

Other blood tests for rheumatoid arthritis:

• erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR)
• C-reactive protein (CRP)
• anti-CCP (anit-cyclic citrullinated peptide) 

SOURCES:

1. Wilson D; Rheumatoid factors in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Can Family Physician. 
2. Longmore M, Wilkinson IB & Rajagopalan SR; Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine, 2004
3. MedlinePlus 
4. WebMD

What is polyarthritis?

QUICK FACTS ABOUT POLYARTHRITIS: 

• It is any type of arthritis which involves 5 or more joints simultaneously
•  It is usually associated with autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, amyloidosis, psoriatic arthritis, and lupus erythematosus.
• It may be experienced at any age
• It is found in both men and women
• It can also be caused by infection with an alphavirus such as chikungunya virus and Ross River virus. This condition is termed alphavirus polyarthritis syndrome.
  

Polyarthritis for medical professionals:

MEDICAL ARTICLE: Inflammatory Polyarthritis in the Older Adult

Approach To A Patient With Polyarthritis from Pramod Mahender

Preventing rheumatoid arthritis

 

Some people have recently asked if rheumatoid arthritis can be prevented. Until the cause is understood it may be difficult to stop it.  Some factors do increase your risk of getting it and they include your gender, genetics and age but none of these factors can be controlled. Environmental factors are also thought to be a factor in the development of RA and I suppose they can be controlled to some degree.
      
Genetics certainly is a complex area and the genetics of rheumatoid arthritis are complex. "The genetic component of RA is widely investigated: the strongest gene association is considered to be the one with the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region, particularly the HLA-DRB1 genes accounting for about two-thirds of the genetics of RA." Arthritis research & therapy

There is one thing that has been shown to increase the risk of rheumatoid arthritis, that can be controlled, and that is smoking.  Recently, it has been reported that smoking is involved in the development of many autoimmune diseases such as RA,  Lupus, Systemic sclerosis, Multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease.

RESOURCES: Rheumatoid arthritis and smoking: putting the pieces together

Zsuzsanna Baka, Edit Buzás and György Nagy

Rheumatoid Arthritis diagram of joints

Refined Sugars and Rheumatoid Arthritis

Excessive consumption of refined sugars, including white sugar, brown sugar and corn syrup, may increase the acidity of the body. Some natural health practitioners have recommended that refined sugar be avoided in cases of inflammatory disease such as rheumatoid arthritis. Substitution with natural sugar alternatives such as stevia, agave nectar, fruit juice concentrates and honey may help to reduce inflammatory processes. An overall reduction of any type of sugar can also be recommended to avoid rapid increases in blood sugar, which may interfere with inflammatory processes.

Many people feel that their pain is reduced if they cut out sugar altogether. Have you experimented with this? I found it difficult to do at first but well worth the reduction in pain especially in my fingers, wrists and ankles. I recommend the following program which gives you online support...


                                                  

Risk of getting Rheumatoid Arthritis involves gene regulators

The kind of DNA once known as “junk” may influence people’s risk of getting rheumatoid arthritis, according to a study that offers the latest look at the complex system of switches that turn disease genes on.

Using genetic information from more than 300 people with rheumatoid arthritis and another 300 without, the researchers found 10 areas that appeared to influence risk, according to the research published yesterday in the journal Nature Biotechnology. 

Read full story at Bloomberg

Don't want to freak you out about Rheumatiod Arthritis but...