I am living with hep c 25 years, Is it possible to have false positive RA sed rate I think thats the test that is done. I myself am riddled with osteo arthritis. and osteo porosis. I have notice that my pinky finger on my left hand, at end of the finger is bent, and does not straighten at all. To me it looks like a RA symtom think i mispelled that word sorry. I queston the negative result for ra. due to the fact that at age 5 i was hospitalized for 6 months with Rheumatic fever. and now am living with Hep c over twenty years. I have also degenerative disk disease Diagnosed in 2000. The pain is incessant. I also have Fibromyalgiaa, and am on Lyrica. I'm concerned that my ra test was a false negative. My younger sister was diagnosed with ra as a child and is now crippled pretty bad.and she doesn't have Hep c.
Hi Butterfly - I'm sorry you are having to deal with so much! Let's try and sort some of this out.
Sed rate is erythrocyte sedimentation rate - it is an indicator of inflammation in the body but it does not tell you what is causing the inflammation. Up to 20 is considered normal. Was your sed rate elevated? Mine was not much elevated at first, but it doubled over a couple of months.
Have you been tested for Rheumatoid factor? 70-80 % of people with RA are positive for Rh. factor but not all. And not everyone who has the factor has RA. So it's not definitive either way.
There is another test called anti-CCP antibody test. If a person is positive for this test, it is 95% likely that they have RA and a worse (erosive/damaging) kind. But even without it, you can have RA.
RA tends to affect the "proximal joints", that is, the joints closer to the body, like the wrist, and the first knuckles. Not that it can't affect the farther knuckles, but OA is very good at knotting up the smaller finger joints too.
Are any of your joints swollen and/or warm? That's usually an indication of inflammation, and might be an RA symptom.
Hope some of this helps!
P.S. If you have 'bumps' on the last joints (near fingernails) of your fingers, these are called "Heberden's nodes" and some people have found that vitamin B6 can help these improve, if they haven't been there too long, or prevent them from getting worse. But it's not guaranteed. If your knuckle itself is deformed, that's not a Heberden's nodes. Have you had an x-ray of your hand or fingers for the doctor to look at?
Hope to hear back from you and wishing you better health!
Ellen