Conditions & symptoms
Rheumatic disease often starts quietly. These guides explain the conditions I treat and the symptoms worth recognising — so you know when it's time to see a specialist.
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Inflammatory arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis
Swollen, tender joints — often hands, wrists and feet on both sides — with long morning stiffness.
Read more →Ankylosing spondylitis
Back and hip pain in younger adults that improves with movement and worsens with rest.
Read more →Psoriatic arthritis
Joint pain, swelling or a 'sausage' finger or toe in someone with psoriasis.
Read more →Post-chikungunya arthritis
Joint pain that lingers for months after chikungunya fever — and when it needs treatment.
Read more →Reactive arthritis
Arthritis, heel pain or red eyes a few weeks after a stomach or urinary infection.
Read more →Juvenile arthritis
Arthritis that starts in childhood — and the silent eye risk every family should know.
Read more →Adult-onset Still's disease
Daily spiking fevers, a fleeting pink rash and painful joints.
Read more →Gout, bones & metabolism
Gout
Sudden, intensely painful, red, hot joint attacks — classically the big toe — that can be stopped for good.
Read more →High uric acid
What a raised uric acid means, and when it needs treatment.
Read more →Osteoporosis
Thin, weak bones that break easily — silent until a fracture, and very treatable.
Read more →Vitamin D deficiency & bone pain
Aching bones, weak muscles and a low test — common in India, and easy to overdo.
Read more →Autoimmune & connective tissue
Lupus (SLE)
Fatigue, rashes, mouth ulcers and joint pain affecting several parts of the body.
Read more →Sjögren's syndrome
Persistently dry eyes and dry mouth, often with fatigue and joint aches.
Read more →Scleroderma
Cold, colour-changing fingers with thickening, tightening skin.
Read more →Myositis
Weakness around the hips and shoulders, sometimes with a rash or lung involvement.
Read more →Antiphospholipid syndrome
An autoimmune tendency to blood clots and pregnancy complications.
Read more →Raynaud's phenomenon
Fingers turning white, then blue, then red in the cold.
Read more →Vasculitis & related
Vasculitis
Inflammation of blood vessels — fever, rash, nerve or organ involvement.
Read more →Giant cell arteritis
A new headache after 50 with scalp tenderness or jaw pain — a sight-threatening urgency.
Read more →Polymyalgia rheumatica
Pain and stiffness in both shoulders and hips, starting after 50.
Read more →Behçet's disease
Recurrent mouth ulcers with eye, skin, genital or vein problems.
Read more →Pain & wear-related
Test results explained
ANA positive: what it means
A common result that is often harmless — when it matters and when it doesn't.
Read more →HLA-B27 positive
A gene, not a disease — what a positive result means for back pain.
Read more →Rheumatoid factor positive
Why "RA factor positive" isn't a diagnosis on its own.
Read more →High ESR or CRP
What raised inflammation markers do — and don't — tell you.
Read more →