Differential diagnosis
It is important to realise that the presence or absence of rheumatoid factor is of prognostic and NOT diagnostic value.
The differential diagnosis or early RA includes:
- viral arthritis (e.g. parvovirus, rubella, hepatitis B)
- reactive arthritis (e.g. post-infection: throat, gut, sexually acquired)
- seronegative spondyloarthropathy (e.g. psoriatic, ankylosing spondylitis, Reiter's disease, inflammatory bowel disease)
- connective tissue disease (e.g. systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma)
- polymyalgia rheumatica
- polyarticular gout
- osteoarthritis
- septic arthritis
- fibromyalgia
- medical conditions presenting with arthropathy (e.g. sarcoidosis, thyroid disease, infective endocarditis, haemochromatosis, diabetic cheiroarthropathy, paraneoplastic syndromes, multiple myeloma)
- Lyme disease
Reference:
- MeReC Bulletin 2007;17(5):1-8.
Related pages
Create an account to add page annotations
Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.