The exact cause of rheumatoid arthritis is unknown. Some investigators suggest that viruses or bacterial infections may be responsible. Whatever the initiating event triggering RA may be, the result seems to follow a course of inflammation and joint destruction via an autoimmune response. The course of the disease is variable, with some patients, perhaps as a result of a genetic influence, experiencing much greater diseases progression and accompanying joint destruction than others. Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease that affects not only joints, but other organs as well.
Symptoms begin gradually for most people over a period of months.
Extreme fatigue and often muscle and bone pain, sometimes accompanied by a low-grade fever, are the primary symptoms. After a period of weeks, specific joints may become involved, particularly the small joints, such as in the hands, wrists, feet, and ankles. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis exhibit symmetrical tenderness, pain, swelling and redness in specific joints. Most joints affected are those found in the shoulders, knees, elbows, and wrists. RA can cause gross deformities in the joints of the hands with the muscles and tendons becoming contracted.