- Osteoarthritis usually occurs in older people.
- It is located in only one or a few joints. (In fact, osteoarthritis is probably most often confused with rheumatoid arthritis if it affects multiple joints in the body.)
- The joints are less inflamed.
- Progression of pain is almost always gradual.
Gout. Gout also causes swelling and severe pain in a joint, although most commonly starting in one joint. It is particularly difficult to distinguish chronic gout in older people from rheumatoid arthritis, however, since gout in this population can occur in a number of joints. A proper diagnosis can be made with a detailed medical history, laboratory tests, and detection in the affected joint of a salt called monosodium urate (MSU), which identifies gout.
Diseases with Symptoms Similar to Rheumatoid Arthritis |
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Disease |
Specific Subtypes |
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Osteoarthritis | |
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Infectious Arthritis |
Lyme disease, septic arthritis, bacterial endocarditis, mycobacterial and fungal arthritis, viral arthritis |
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Postinfectious or Reactive Arthritis |
Reiter syndrome (a disorder characterized by arthritis and inflammation in the eye and urinary tract), rheumatic fever, inflammatory bowel disease |
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Crystal Induced Arthritis |
Gout and pseudogout |
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Other rheumatic Autoimmune Diseases |
Systemic vasculitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, Still's Disease (also called juvenile rheumatoid arthritis) Behcet's disease |
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Fibromyalgia | |
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Other Diseases |
Chronic fatigue syndrome, hepatitis C, familial Mediterranean fever, cancers, AIDS, leukemia, bunions, Whipple's disease, dermatomyositis, Henoch-Schonlein purpura, Kawasaki's disease, erythema nodosum, erythema multiforme, pyoderma gangrenosum, pustular psoriasis |
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