Arthritis Symptoms

Posted: July 1, 2005

Different types of arthritis have different symptoms. In general, people who have arthritis feel pain and stiffness in the joints. Some other common symptoms of arthritis are:

• Swelling in one or more joints
• Stiffness around the joints that lasts for a least one hour in the early morning
• Joint pain or tenderness that is constant or comes and goes
• Feeling like it's hard to use or move a joint
• Warmth or redness in a joint
• Sometimes a person can lose weight, feel weak and have fevers or joint pain for no reason

You should see a health care provider if you have any one of these symptoms for longer than two weeks.

How is arthritis diagnosed?
Diagnosing can be difficult because some symptoms are common to many different diseases. Your health care provider will first do a complete physical exam, looking for any swelling, redness, warmth, deformity, ease of movement, and tenderness in your joints.

Your heart, lungs, eyes, ears, throat and other parts of your body may be examined as well. This is because some types of arthritis can affect your organs.

Lab tests may also be ordered and samples of blood, urine or synovial (joint) fluid may be taken. Your doctor may have you also see a rheumatologist, a doctor who specializes in arthritis.

Source: National Institutes of Health

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