Contents

Disclaimer

Oxford University Press makes no representation, express or implied, that the drug dosages in this book are correct. Readers must therefore always check the product information and clinical procedures with the most up to date published product information and data sheets provided by the manufacturers and the most recent codes of conduct and safety regulations. The authors and the publishers do not accept responsibility or legal liability for any errors in the text or for the misuse or misapplication of material in this work. Except where otherwise stated, drug dosages and recommendations are for the non-pregnant adult who is not breastfeeding.

Show Summary Details
Page of

Clinical presentation and diagnosis of rheumatological disorders 

Clinical presentation and diagnosis of rheumatological disorders
Chapter:
Clinical presentation and diagnosis of rheumatological disorders
Author(s):

Christopher Deighton

, and Fiona Pearce

DOI:
10.1093/med/9780198746690.003.0443
Page of

PRINTED FROM OXFORD MEDICINE ONLINE (www.oxfordmedicine.com). © Oxford University Press, 2021. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in Oxford Medicine Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 05 March 2021

Most rheumatological diagnoses are made through effective history taking and physical examination rather than investigation. Systemic symptoms, such as weight loss, anorexia, and fever, point to systemic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, other polyarthritides, systemic lupus erythematosus, polymyalgia, and vasculitides. Swelling of joints is a symptom commonly reported by patients with no objective evidence of this on examination. Inflammatory arthropathies should not be diagnosed unless the physician is able to identify objective swelling, if necessary by arranging a prompt review during an active episode. Diagnostic criteria for the systemic rheumatic diseases are useful in directing the history taking to verify a suspected diagnosis. Investigations are best used to confirm a strongly suspected diagnosis, already made on the basis of history and examination, not as a screening tool for rheumatic disease.

Access to the complete content on Oxford Medicine Online requires a subscription or purchase. Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts for each book and chapter without a subscription.

Please subscribe or login to access full text content.

If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code.

For questions on access or troubleshooting, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.