Seronegative Rheumatoid Arthritis
RA or rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic illness characterized by
inflammation of the joints and other tissues from a deranged immune
system. In RA, instead of fighting invading microbes, the immune
system turns on the body itself. This causes the inflammation which
progresses to invasion and destruction of joints and injury to other
organs.
There are many factors used to arrive at the diagnosis of RA and one of them is the blood test for the rheumatoid factor, or RF. Roughly 70% of RA sufferers will test positive for RF and they are referred to as seropositive. The remaining 20% to 30% or so of patients will test negative or normal for the rheumatoid factor and are referred to as seronegative. The RF test can also be a false positive in certain other diseases or even in people who are completely well.
To be diagnosed with RA certain other tests will be positive and other signs and symptoms of the condition will be present. For example, the sedimentation rate or ESR may be positive and there can be a positive ANA test. Inflamed joints and other symptoms like fatigue and weight loss and anemia may also exist. It is important to remember that damage to the body can occur even when the RF is negative.
As a general rule, those people with seronegative arthritis have a less severe form of the disease and have a better prognosis for avoid disability. However, some fairly severe cases may be seronegative and still will require aggressive treatment.
Since the RF level is often used as an indicator of disease activity and treatment effectiveness, those who are seronegative with RA will not have this benchmark to rely upon. Other means of assessing how well the treatment regimen is working such as symptomatic relief and reversal of anemia may be helpful absent the useful RF levels.
Even though seronegative RA is commonly less severe, it pays to remember that it is still RA and is still a serious illness in need of expert treatment. Some seronegative RA patients will have severe enough disease to cause serious disability so being RF negative should not be assumed to be out of being at risk.
Diagnosis may be delayed with seronegative RA since other arthritis
diseases are also RF negative and it may be hard to sort out RA from
psoriatic arthritis, lupus or other diseases. Treatment for
seronegative RA is the same as that for seropositive RA. It will
usually involve an anti-inflammatory drug, either steroidal or a
non-steroidal type, a DMARD or disease modifying anti-rheumatic
drug, and often a biological modifier as well. .
Resources
Article referring to seronegative RA as milder disease:
ww.arthritis-pain-cure.com/
First person stories of patients with seronegative
RA:
www.rheumatic.org/
www.rheumatic.org/
Very good About.com arthritis site referencing seronegative RA: arthritis.about.com/
Discussion of various types of arthritis that are seronegative: www.medicinenet.com/