Rheumatoid arthritis
autoimmune disease which attacks healthy cells and tissue located in joints
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term autoimmune disorder that primarily affects joints. It typically results in warm, swollen, and painful joints. Pain and stiffness often worsen following rest. Most commonly, the wrist and hands are involved, with the same joints typically involved on both sides of the body. The disease may also affect other parts of the body, including skin, eyes, lungs, heart, nerves, and blood. This may result in a low red blood cell count, inflammation around the lungs, fever, low energy and inflammation around the heart. Often, symptoms come on gradually over weeks to months.
The cause of rheumatoid arthritis is believed to involve a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The underlying mechanism involves the body's immune system attacking the joints. This results in inflammation and thickening of the joint capsule.
“Rheumatoid arthritis” enters the record as autoimmune disease which attacks healthy cells and tissue located in joints. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Rheumatoid, arthritis and autoimmune can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rheumatoid arthritis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.