The following symptoms and complaints may indicate arthralgia (joint pain):
Leading symptoms
- Onset pain: onset pain is expressed when a joint begins to be active.
- Start-up pain is typical of degenerative joint changes.
- Night pain or pain at rest: night pain occurs at rest, so this pain is often perceived at night.
- Night pain or pain at rest is most common in inflammatory diseases of the joints.
- In degeneratively altered joints, rest pain often occurs after overload.
- Strain pain: the strain pain is to be triggered only when the joint is loaded. At rest, it disappears.
- Among other things, pain on exertion can occur with traumatic lesions (injuries) of a joint. Furthermore, a strain pain can manifest itself in inflammatory or degenerative changes.
Warning signs (red flags)
- Anamnestic information.
- Professional groups (farmers, veterinarians) → think of: Bang’s disease (brucellosis)
- Trauma (injury, accident)
- Symptoms of joint inflammation: redness, hyperthermia, pain and limited mobility of the affected joint → think of: (purulent) arthritis; immediately clarification by a joint puncture / puncture examination.
- Symmetrical joint pain with morning stiffness (> 60 minutes) → think: rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Characteristics that indicate an increased risk of RA, according to a task force of the European rheumatism league EULAR:
- First-degree relatives with RA
- Short duration of joint symptoms (< 1 year).
- Symptoms in the metacarpophalangeal joints of the fingers
- Morning stiffness (at least 60 minutes; is almost always a sign of inflammatory joint disease).
- Morning accentuated complaints
- Difficulty in closing the fist
- Positive Gaenslen test (handshake causes pain in MCP joints/metacarpophalangeal joint).
