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Rheumatology

Rheumatology is one of the subspecialties of internal medicine and is usually devoted to therapies and diagnoses of rheumatic diseases. The term is initiated from Greek word ‘rheuma’, means ‘something that flows like a stream or a river’ and the suffix ‘ology’ stands for ‘study of’. The patient suffers severe pain in his joints and has difficulty in moving about. The most pronounce area of pain may be the knees and the patient may have difficulty in sitting and getting up, climbing the stairs and so on.

Rheumatologists mostly treats the problems associated with the allied conditions of the connective tissues and the joints. The diseases that are managed or diagnosed by the rheumatologists are Sjögren`s syndrome, lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, polychondritis, dermatomyositis, scleroderma, osteoarthritis, gout, septic arthritis, and vasculitis.

There is a physical examination and far-reaching medical history, but apart from that, a rheumatologist can go for different methods of diagnosis. The methods are X-rays for affected joints and different imaging methods; laboratory tests like rheumatoid factor, erythrocyte sedimentation rate; and chemical pathology & cytology.

Majority of the rheumatic diseases can be treated with steroids, analgesics, DMARDs, NSAIDs, monoclonal antibodies, and the dissolvable TNF receptor etanercept. If not treated properly the pain can cripple a person for life.