Fibromyalgia is an intractable disease that is not easy to treat as it is a chronic disease that causes pain throughout the body for more than 3 months. The main symptom of fibromyalgia is pain in the muscles of the whole body, such as arms, legs, and trunk.
Recently, it is too easy to diagnose ‘fibromyalgia’ for patients who complain of such muscle pain. However, there is a disease that has similar symptoms to fibromyalgia but has a different treatment method, so it is important to accurately differentiate it. It is a chronic inflammatory disease such as polymyalgia rheumatism and rheumatoid arthritis.
FibromyalgiaㅣSource: Clip Art Korea
Fibromyalgia should be differentiated from various diseases
Fibromyalgia is muscle pain that occurs for no particular reason, so blood tests do not show any abnormalities. If the level of inflammation is elevated in blood tests, it is important to check whether it is an inflammatory disease such as rheumatoid arthritis or polymyalgia rheumatism. Treatment methods for rheumatoid arthritis or polymyalgia rheumatism have been established, and when treated, the response to treatment is good. However, when drugs used for fibromyalgia are taken for these diseases, the pain may not be controlled and side effects may occur. to be.
In cases such as Sjogren’s syndrome or Behcet’s disease rheumatic disease, secondary fibromyalgia may appear. Patients with these conditions should pay more attention to their diagnosis, bearing in mind the possible comorbidity of fibromyalgia.
‘Joint ultrasonography’ is useful for differential diagnosis of fibromyalgia
Joint ultrasonography is an important test in the differentiation of fibromyalgia and other inflammatory autoimmune diseases. In fact, many patients who have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and are undergoing treatment but do not improve and visit the hospital again, when joint ultrasound is performed, show synovitis. The most important pathological finding of various rheumatic diseases is synovitis, in which inflammation occurs in the synovial membrane. Therefore, when synovitis is seen, it is often diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis or polymyalgia rheumatism.
In rheumatic diseases, it is very important to accurately diagnose by integrating clinical symptoms, blood tests, joint ultrasound, X-ray findings, and sometimes histological findings. After ruling out the possibility of an inflammatory autoimmune disease through these various tests, the final diagnosis of fibromyalgia should be made.
Written = Haidak Medical Reporter Won Je-beom (Rheumatology specialist)
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