Effects of rheumatoid arthritis on the cardiovascular system

Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common type of autoimmune arthritis, which causes swelling, stiffness, and pain in the joints. It occurs in more than one area of ​​the body, and the symptoms are often similar, meaning they appear on both sides of the body, such as both knees and both elbows.

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The arthritis rheumatoid (AR) can become disabling depending on the progression of the disease, especially if treatment is omitted or if physical and pharmacological therapies are inconsistent.

By not being treated in time, this disease can affect different organs of the patient, it is a pathology that can generate different lung conditions where the inflammatory process can develop fibrosis in the lunga very severe and disabling condition that also requires the attention and monitoring of a pulmonary pulmonologist.

In these cases, patients can develop dependence on oxygen for their daily lives, limiting their quality of life. “these are patients who walk down a corridor and are already tired. It is a very severe complication that is highly feared and it is one of those we want to avoid”stressed in an interview with the Medicine and Public Health (MSP) magazine, the rheumatology specialist Amarilis de Jesús.

On the other hand, coronary problemsare other complications that often go unnoticed by the same patient. The inflammatory process can damage the coronary arteries, the heart arteries that feed the heart. These patients can develop problems of ischemia, myocardial infarctions, and many times they are catastrophic infarctions, where many times they end with coronary bypass”, Indian.

symptomatology

-Weightloss.
-Exams that reflect arthritis.
-Fever.
-Pain.
-Fatigue.
Arthritis symmetrical
-Reduced movement in small joints (wrists, ankles)
-morning stiffness

Importance of an accurate diagnosis

In most cases, detection in the first three months of the disease in what is known as “the treatment window”, a period in which symptoms can be achieved with treatment to remit or hide, but not cure , well the arthritis Rheumatoid is a chronic disease.

It is important that the patient is evaluated in all his organs and that he is educated about his condition so that he understands the need to prevent the inflammatory process of the disease, since by achieving this, he has control over all areas of the body.

Other complications:

-Vasculitis in different areas of the skin.
-Anemia.
-Inflammatory processes at eye level.
-Damage to the lungs.
– Fatigue extreme tiredness.
-Increased risk of developing osteoporosis: not only because of arthritis as such, but by medications that can sometimes decrease bone mass.

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