Early symptoms of rheumatic disease in children

Rheumatism is a very common disease in daily life. It can cause great harm to the patient's physical health and seriously affect people's normal life and work, especially for children. Due to low body resistance and genetic factors, rheumatism can also be caused, which is generally manifested as joint pain, morning stiffness, joint swelling, joint deformity and dysfunction.

1. What is rheumatism?

Rheumatism is a group of diseases that mainly affect joints, bones, muscles, blood vessels and related soft tissues or connective tissues. Most of these are autoimmune diseases. The onset is often hidden and slow, the course of the disease is long, and most cases have a genetic predisposition. Common rheumatic and immune diseases include: rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjögren's syndrome, ankylosing spondylitis, osteoarthritis, and gouty arthritis. The cause of rheumatic autoimmune disease is still unclear, but it is related to immune disorder, and is also related to genetics, environment, infection, etc.

2. Symptoms of early rheumatic disease

1. Joint pain. The location of the pain helps determine whether the pain comes from a joint disorder. It is important to distinguish pain caused by localized lesions from widespread pain caused by systemic lesions. Generally, middle-aged and elderly patients are more prone to relapse, and common symptoms include joint pain and soreness. They can be treated with external application of Shenggu Zhuifeng Patch combined with hot compress.

2. Morning stiffness. When patients wake up in the morning or after resting for a long time, their joints feel sticky and stiff, which can only be relieved or disappear after movement. Morning stiffness is most prominent in rheumatoid arthritis and can last for several hours, but is shorter in other arthritis types. This is a common manifestation of rheumatic disease.

3. Fatigue. Fatigue is a decrease or loss of muscle strength. Because fatigue often occurs with other symptoms, such as pain, morning stiffness, and tiredness, patients sometimes cannot tell what fatigue is. Patients will find themselves experiencing symptoms of fatigue when they are unable to complete actions such as walking, chewing, and swallowing. This is the main manifestation of the initial symptoms of rheumatism.

4. Swollen joints. It often appears in painful joints and is a sign of synovitis or surrounding soft tissue inflammation, and its degree varies depending on the severity of the inflammation. It may be caused by joint effusion or synovial hypertrophy. Bone hyperplasia is more common in osteoarthritis.

5. Joint deformity and dysfunction. The joints lose their normal shape and their range of motion is restricted, such as the knee cannot be fully straightened, the metacarpophalangeal joints of the hands have ulnar deviation, and the joints are subluxated. These changes are associated with cartilage and bone destruction and are common in rheumatoid arthritis.

3. Early treatment is critical

It is understood that more than half of patients mistakenly believe that joint damage caused by rheumatoid arthritis is reversible, and more than 50% of ankylosing spondylitis patients are diagnosed in the middle and late stages, which greatly affects the treatment effect. If not diagnosed and treated promptly and correctly, about 50% of rheumatoid arthritis patients will develop moderate functional loss within 2 years after diagnosis, and up to 60% of ankylosing spondylitis patients will experience varying degrees of functional loss, which will bring a heavy burden to the patients, their families and even society. Therefore, early treatment is very important.