Lupus can also cause inflammation in the joints, which doctors call “inflammatory arthritis.” It can make your joints hurt and feel stiff, tender, warm, and swollen. Lupus arthritis most often affects joints that are farther from the middle of your body, like your fingers, wrists, elbows, knees, ankles, and toes.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic (long-lasting) autoimmune disease that mostly affects joints. RA occurs when the immune system, which normally helps protect the body from infection and disease, attacks its own tissues. The disease causes pain, swelling, stiffness, and loss of function in joints.
Your immune system normally makes antibodies that attack bacteria and viruses, helping to fight infection. If you have rheumatoid arthritis, your immune system mistakenly sends antibodies to the lining of your joints, where they attack the tissue surrounding the joint.
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis. Some people call it “wear and tear” arthritis. It occurs most frequently in the hands, hips, and knees. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease, which means your immune system attacks healthy cells in your body by mistake.
Lupus and Scleroderma
The autoimmune diseases systemic lupus erythematosus and scleroderma are two separate conditions but often present with joint involvement that mimics rheumatoid arthritis.
Systemic sclerosis, sometimes called scleroderma, is a rare and complicated autoimmune condition. It produces a build-up of collagen in the body that can cause a wide variety of symptoms.
Rheumatoid arthritis, or RA, is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease, which means that your immune system attacks healthy cells in your body by mistake, causing inflammation (painful swelling) in the affected parts of the body. RA mainly attacks the joints, usually many joints at once.
Multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and polymyalgia rheumatica are three types of autoimmune disorders that affect the joints or nerves. Autoimmune disorders occur when the body's own immune system mistakenly starts attacking healthy tissue.
Inflammatory disease is a general term that applies to autoimmune diseases and chronic inflammation conditions in which a person's immune system attacks the body's own tissues. Familiar inflammatory diseases include rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, inflammatory bowel disease, and multiple sclerosis.
The most common viruses causing arthritis and/or arthralgias are parvovirus, the alphaviruses, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), and tropical viruses, such as Zika and chikungunya (CHIKV).
You may experience pain and stiffness, with or without swelling. This affects most people with lupus. Common areas for muscle pain and swelling include the neck, thighs, shoulders, and upper arms.
No one test can diagnose lupus. The combination of blood and urine tests, signs and symptoms, and physical examination findings leads to the diagnosis.
However, people with fibromyalgia usually have tender areas over muscles, and pressing those areas causes discomfort. The examination of a person with lupus may reveal joint pain, stiffness, swelling or abnormal movement.
Some common autoimmune diseases, including Type 1 diabetes mellitus, are relatively easy to diagnose, while others, such as vasculitis, Addison's disease, lupus, and other rheumatic diseases, are more difficult. Additionally, many of the 100-plus autoimmune diseases are uncommon or rare.
Musculoskeletal pain
Back, neck and joint pain can be indirectly caused by MS, particularly for people who have problems walking or moving around that puts pressure on their lower back or hips.
Autoimmune diseases can affect many types of tissues and nearly any organ in your body. They may cause a variety of symptoms including pain, tiredness (fatigue), rashes, nausea, headaches, dizziness and more. Specific symptoms depend on the exact disease.
Early symptoms of ankylosing spondylitis might include back pain and stiffness in the lower back and hips, especially in the morning and after periods of inactivity.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
It is a disease that affects multiple joints, resulting in pain, swelling, and stiffness. Tiredness and fever may also be present.