By: Bertil Hjert
Psoriatic Arthritis is a medical condition that results in a lot of swelling and pain in and around the joints. The condition may also put an impact on many other joints such as toes, ankles, wrists, elbows, spine, shoulder joints and joints in the lower back.
This condition is also known to affect joint tissues such as ligaments and tendons. It may result in a lot of swelling around the affected area. This swelling is known as sausage be or finger.
One may also experience inflammation of skin, especially on the scalp, elbows and knees. Sometimes the skin may also become inflamed and fully covered with silvery or grey scales.
If you want to treat this disease in an effective manner, it is very important to detect it earlier.
A) Here are some of the main symptoms of Psoriatic Arthritis:
a) Pain and swelling in the toes on fingers
b) Morning stiffness and/or tiredness
c) Reduced range of motion
d) Pitting of finger and/or toe nails
e) Swelling that give fingers and toes, a sausage appearance
f) Pain and swelling over ligaments and tendons.
The exact cause of this arthritis is not known. However, medical experts believe that a person with family history of Psoriatic arthritis have increased chances of getting this disease.
The disease can easily be diagnosed via certain X-rays, joint fluid tests and blood tests.
A) There are several treatments options available for patients once the condition has been diagnosed.
• Surgery
• Proper skin care
• Splints
• Rest
• Light treatment
• Exercise
• Connective cosmetics
• Medication as mentioned below:
1. NSAIDS - non-steriodal anti-inflammatory drug
2. DMARDS - disease modifying anti-traumatic drugs
3. Gold therapy
4. Glucocorticoids - steroid hormones
5. Cyclosporine - immunosuppressant drug
6. Methotexate
• Heat and Cold
This type of arthritis can be treated via consulting a good rheumatologist. The rheumatologist can suggest you medications to reduce the pain and help you maintain function and movement.
You need to have a lot of knowledge about this disease. This will help you to make out the symptoms of this condition as soon as possible.
Your health care practitioner would be the best person to diagnose whether you have psoriatic arthritis.
This type of arthritis is very common to several other types of arthritis such as Reiter's syndrome, gout and rheumatoid arthritis, your doctor may like to perform a physical examination and then order many tests in order to assist in diagnosis.
X-rays are often order to observe the changes to the bone. Blood tests and joint fluid tests are requisite and require to be under taken in order to make sure that the patient is not suffering from any other condition such as gout, reactive arthritis or rheumatoid arthritis.
As soon as the diagnosis is confirmed, many treatments can be prescribed to decrease your pain, enhance your movement and stiffness.
The treatment available for psoriatic arthritis is both for skin condition and the arthritis. For mild condition, topical treatments would work.
For severe condition, the doctor would prescribe serious medications and lifestyle changes.
