Rheumatoid arthritis. MCSC patient history
NewsPatient S., 64 years old, applied to the Rheumatology department of MCSC.
She said that more than 20 years ago she began to worry:
- stiffness in the joints in the morning for an hour
- pain and swelling in the hands and wrists
- weakness, fatigue
- temperature 37.1 C
First, the woman came to the rheumatologist in the clinic. The tests showed elevated inflammatory blood markers, rheumatoid factor and specific antibodies.
- The doctor diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis and prescribed two medications.
At the beginning, the therapy had a positive effect: the joints stopped hurting, blood counts returned to normal.
- One of the drugs was gradually reduced and then completely canceled.
But in 2016, the aggravation began. The doctor changed the treatment regimen that the patient underwent until 2018, initially with a positive and then with an insufficient effect.
As a result, the patient turned to our Center, rheumatologists adjusted the therapy.
- But despite the treatment, there were still pains and swelling of the hands, stiffness, and inflammation rates were also high.
In January 2019, doctors prescribed a three-component therapy regimen, but the disease did not go away.
In the same year, a medical commission was held, where specialists decided to prescribe biological and targeted therapy in combination with taking several drugs.
- As a result, this scheme turned out to be successful, which helped to reduce the activity of the disease.
It should be noted that after treatment, the 2nd stage of rheumatoid arthritis remained on the radiographs of the hands and feet, but there are no erosions and deformities of the joints. 
The history of our patient shows how difficult the selection of therapy for rheumatoid arthritis can be.
In this case, we see that despite the active course of the disease and due to the constant intake of basic drugs, it was possible to avoid the "destruction" of the joints, although the effect of these drugs was insufficient.
It should also be noted that the patient strictly adhered to the drug intake algorithm.
- This is very important, because often patients, while maintaining the activity of the disease, cease to be observed by a rheumatologist and cancel therapy on their own, considering it ineffective.
Today, our patient is regularly seen by a rheumatologist at MCSC and feels much better.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune rheumatic disease of unknown origin, which is characterized by chronic erosive arthritis and systemic damage to internal organs, leading to early disability and shortened life expectancy.
- High levels of inflammatory markers, the involvement of a large number of joints at the onset of the disease may indicate an unfavorable course.
This disease is chronic, so the goal of treatment is remission or low activity of the disease. 
