Rheumatic diseases are usually chronic, painful and usually associated with a permanent restriction of movement. More than 450 diseases of very different causes belong to the rheumatic group. Between 200 and 400 diseases (depending on the classification) of the musculoskeletal system are grouped together as rheumatism.
Types of rheumatism
The different classification is due to the non-uniform definition of the field of rheumatology (the medical specialty that deals with rheumatic diseases). The four or five major groups include:
- Degenerative diseases Wear and tear of the various joints, as is present in osteoarthritis. These diseases account for about half of all rheumatic diseases and often occur in the hip joints, knee joints, or shoulder. But also complaints of the Achilles tendon, tennis elbow or mouse arm and disc damage are included.
- Soft tissue rheumatism Here are not the joints affected, but the “soft tissues” of the body. In addition to tendons and muscles, internal organs are often affected as in fibromyalgia. This type of disease, which is difficult to diagnose, now accounts for almost 40% of rheumatic diseases.
- Inflammatory rheumatic diseases Here the immune system plays crazy. It forms antibodies against the body’s own components (autoimmune antibodies) – and the body responds with inflammation. In rheumatoid arthritis, the synovial membrane of the hand and foot joints is attacked, in ankylosing spondylitis the spinal joints, and in psoriatic arthritis (the inflammation of the joints in psoriasis) the finger or toe joints. Although these forms account for only 10% of rheumatic diseases, they often take a serious course. Joint inflammation in Crohn’s disease, Lyme disease and Reiter’s disease also belong to this group – as well as diseases of the connective tissue and vessels such as lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, Sjögren’s syndrome and polymyalgia rheumatica.
- Metabolic diseases with rheumatic symptoms Also called pararheumatic diseases. These include gout, osteoporosis – which can occur in men as well as women – or rickets. The diseases have in common that changes occur in bone or joint metabolism, which leads to discomfort.
- Back complaints The Rheumatism League lists back complaints (dorsopathies) as a separate group, so that five groups are distinguished.
