new here old to psoriatic arthritis | Arthritis Information

 

Hello everyone,

I see a lot of introductions here, but I put mine in the section for introducing yourself and since I went off on a tangent about my medication history... I won't do that to you here.

I just wanted to thank everyone for sharing, it's great to see that others have the same thoughts or reactions to medication.

I did see where a couple people asked about test for psoriatic arthritis and someone was even confused about the blood test that were done - it is my understanding that the blood test, in addition to the regular things, also measures your "sed" level and then they look at you and your families for psoriasis. Also since it doesn't happen in a parallel way, ie: both thumbs like rheumatoid but travels here and there, causes "sausage" fingers and affects your connective tissue and joints - they can get a pretty good diagnosis. Not sure that is all correct but it's how I understood it to be.

Thank you all again. Hi Ews and welcome to the forum.  I know in my instance that the labs are worthless.  I'm in clinical remission for RA and labs are all negative.  RA is soooo much better but PsA is flaring and my labs are normal.  It takes multiple visits over a period of time for a RD to diagnose PsA, especially if there is no skin involvement. 

Lindy, There is one blood test and I can't find my info on it.  As soon as I find the info I'll post.  I also don't think that it's 100% reliable.   Your fingers have a very typical PsA look to them.  They're called sausage fingers (nice term) and look different than RA fingers.  With PsA usually the joints at the far end of the fingers and toes are affected.  Also, the areas of the joints where tendons attach to the bone will be painful.  Sometimes the pain extends the length of the tendon.   The Achilles tendon will become inflammed and extremely painful with difficulty in walking.  The elbows will develop large inflammed sacs around the elbow area that you lean on. 

"We have found that there are certain genetic markers present on the membranes of white blood cells, also serve as indicators of progression, and these may be more important than the clinical features, which may change with time. These markers are known as HLA antigens. Many people may recognize this term in conjunction with organ transplantation. Although HLA antigens were initially identified in the context of transplantation, it soon became clear that they were important in the immune response, the ability of our bodies to fight off infections. Certain of these markers are more likely to occur among patients with Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis than in the general population, and thus are thought to play a role in the development of the disease".

As Lin said they look at your family history and your skin and suasage fingers, etc. Where the problem mostly arises is the general physician is not trained to notice the symptoms of Pa. They are more looking for the symptoms of RA and OA. Sometimes it takes alot to convince your dr you need to be referred to an RD who is able to notice the symptoms easier than your regular dr. Both Lin and I can tell you it took sometime for us to convince our drs that is was more than Ra or Oa. My RD told me swollen hands are quite a red flag for Pa because Pa attacks your soft tissue. The palms of my hands look like I am holding a ball at times because the meaty part of my palm swells so bad. It is confusing and daunting but if you have an rd that knwos what they are doing that is most important. meme
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